MOST people would panic or hang up the phone the moment they receive a phone call from the “Royal Malaysian Police” (PDRM), Inland Revenue Department (LHDN) or “Bank Negara”.
The stories are almost the same each time. In the case of “PDRM,” the story is about a hit-and-run accident and you may be required to present yourself at a police station some 400km away.
When the call comes from “Bank Negara,” it may something as serious as AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Act) and if found guilty of money laundering, the punishment is something that you would not want to hear.
The idea behind the script is to send a chill down your spine so that you will divulge private information that these scammers need for them to withdraw money from your bank account.
While it is true that no one escapes death and the taxman, in this case, the “taxman” is a scammer.
Just this afternoon, one of our writers received a call from a mobile number 013-2021298 claiming to be from the Social Security Organisation (SOCSO). The lady claimed that the writer had applied for insurance claims from SOCSO.
He did not apply any insurance claims from SOCSO, so the natural thing that came to mind is someone had applied using his name and identity.
How to identify a scam caller
But our writer is streetwise. Realising that the number is from a mobile number, he knew straight away that it must be a scam. No government agency would make phone calls using a mobile number.
In fact, installing an application such as TrueCaller can sometimes give us an idea who the true caller is. In this case, the number has been identified to someone who registered as ‘X Tahu Sapa’.
The caller had no qualms about giving away her identity. Of course, it was any name plucked out of the air and when asked for her office number to call and verify, she gave a number that never existed.
Thanking her, within minutes, the writer contacted 997. This is the National Scam Hotline which was recently established to investigate scam cases. The phone number was provided for the officers to investigate and block immediately.
This is what readers of FocusM should do. Once you put down the phone, spare a minute or two to call 997 to report the phone number to them. – June 29, 2023
Main pic credit: Shutterstock
