Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
THE National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) is in the process of extending its operating hours to assist the people, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, said Bank Negara Malaysia has also requested all banks to offer automated services to stop the transfer of money immediately in the event of fraud.
“The proposal to extend the operating hours for NSRC has been agreed upon, but Bank Negara has suggested an automated system for victims to request for stoppage of funds transfer from banks,” he told Dewan Rakyat during the Prime Minister’s Question Time.
Anwar was responding to a question by Tan Hong Pin (PH-Bakri), who wanted to know whether the government has plans to extend the operating hours of NSRC to 24 hours.
The Prime Minister also said that a review of the law is ongoing for plans to allow for the return of monies to fraud victims.
“Most of the victims have pleaded for their money to be returned, seeing the court cases are lengthy.
“The issue is how to return the money taken from the victims as court cases are ongoing.
“What has been decided is to amend the Criminal Procedure Code to allow the immediate return of the money to fraud victims while court cases are ongoing, with the condition that a bond is in place,” he said.
Anwar said this in a supplementary question by Tan on the government’s measures to allow victims to gain their stolen funds during court procedures.
The Tambun MP added that all investigation papers on fraud cases are under active investigation.
“A total of 3,595 investigation papers were opened for fraud offences under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
“Another 33 investigation papers were also opened for misappropriation offences which involved sanctions totalling RM34.8mil,” he said.
In a reply to Wan Razali Wan Nor (PN-Kuantan), who asked if the government will make two-factor authentication processes mandatory for financial transactions, Anwar said the current allocation for NSRC and the number of officers are adequate to combat scam cases.
Based on the NSRC’s statistics, a total of 30,069 calls were received since the hotline began in 2012 until April this year.
Out of this, 11,858 calls were fraud reports from victims with total losses valued at RM104.8mil. In his Budget 2023 speech in February, Anwar said the government has allocated RM10mil to combat rising online fraud in the country.
