If you would have thought the Movement Control Order restricted everyone from going about their daily normal life and confined to their homes, then you are mistaken because apparently the MCO does not apply to criminals.
Syndicates have moved their activities online, preying on unsuspecting individuals and robbing them of their savings. Scammers have been prowling on the world wide web for decades, from the Nigerian Prince scam to Macau scammers, they were known to be rife and active before the Covid 19 pandemic. You would have come to believe when the whole world is in crisis with thousands of lives being lost, criminals will have a soft of heart and be more concern in caring for their family and stop unscrupulous activity for the time being or knowing that victims of their action could well be victims of the pandemic too.
But this is not the case, six people lost their savings after they downloaded an application designed by the syndicate that used Bank Negara as its cover to scam these victims. This latest tactic used by was exposed by Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department after receiving six reports from victims aged between 24 and 59 years from April 7 to 11 involving losses amounting to RM295,350.
Its director Datuk Seri Mohd Zakaria Ahmad said four of these reports were lodged in Kuala Lumpur, while the rest were from Penang and Sarawak.
“The modus operandi used by the syndicate was to make a random call and introduce themselves as someone from the authorities such as police, before sending a link (www.negarabank.com.my/nbm.apk) through WhatsApp.”The victim will be told to use the link to download an application which they claim is from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) called bnmsafe (8002),” he said in a press conference.
Victims will be then asked to key in their personal and banking information, after the syndicate gets the information, the syndicate will be able to access the bank accounts and transfer the money to another bank account. To do this, they will then ask the victim for the transaction authorisation code (TAC).
Once the process is completed, the victim will be told to delete the documents which have been filled before realising that the money had been taken from their account.
The latest tactic is catching many off guard as they are tricked by the Bank Negara name used, as many of the public believe there could be payments due to them based on the Covid 19 relief fund announced by the Prime Minister. Datuk Zakaria advised the public to be more careful when getting phone calls from unknown persons and not to share their private information with them. And if there is any doubt, to contact the JSJK hotline number at 013-2111222 (WhatsApp only).
