KUALA LUMPUR: Police have suggested that companies depending on phone communication with customers explore alternative methods to prevent their employees from being mistaken for scammers.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said there were many Malaysians who never had to deal with law enforcement agencies and had little knowledge of how these agencies work.
These people, he said, tend to panic when faced with such a situation, making them susceptible to manipulation by scammers.
"We respect and understand the concerns faced by the telemarketing industry.
"At the same time, there are incidents of people falling prey to phone scammers.
"This is why we have taken the approach of advising people not to entertain unknown phone calls.
"We understand that those in the telemarketing industry and others (who use phones to communicate with customers) are bound to be affected.
"So, we need to find a new way of communicating with customers," he told the New Straits Times.
Ramli was asked to comment on the struggles shared by those in industries that require them to communicate with their customers via phone calls.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah told the Dewan Negara recently that 34,497 cases of online fraud involving losses of RM1.218 billion were reported nationwide last year.
Statistics, he said, showed that telecommunications crime cases such as SMS contest scams, online impersonation scams and phone call scams were among the highest-recorded cases, with 10,348 cases involving losses totalling RM352.9 million.
Ramli said police had advised telecommunication companies to avoid sending messages to their customers, asking them to click on links to get more information.
"This method may also be abused by scammers (to trap their victims).
"Victims might see it as an advertisement or an offer that is legitimate but when they click on the link, unknowingly they are falling into the scammers' trap," he said.
The NST has reached out to the Association of Banks in Malaysia for comment, but it has yet to respond.
Crime analyst Shahul Hamid Abdul Rahim concurred with Ramli's views, saying it was time businesses that communicate with their customers via phone calls look for alternative means.
This, he said, included having their own in-app phone service.
"They need to think of a better way. If scammers can think about how to improve their system, we too need to update our way of doing work."
He also urged companies to refrain from sending links to the public as this could lead to confusion and leave them vulnerable to APK scammers.
APK scammers are individuals who distribute malicious apps via links to fish for information and to hack a device.
