KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6: “Be Smart, Stay Alert” – the words emblazoned on the vest worn by the Royal Malaysian Police’s (PDRM) senior frontline officer tackling online scamming, ACP Lai Lee Ching, reaffirm what’s really needed to stay clear of being scammed. It’s a simple and yet powerful message to be on guard against scammers.
ACP Lai, who is PDRM’s Principal Assistant Director (Strategic Planning) in the Commercial Crime Department, was at the Persatuan Hainan Selangor & Wilayah Persekutuan’s (PHSWP) Thean Hou Temple Convention Hall in Robson Heights here recently to bring about greater awareness against online scams.
In her presentation, ACP Lai, known for pioneering PDRM’s first scam awareness movie OPPA and the educational song “Be Smart, Stay Alert”, revealed the culpability of many phone users in accessing “too good to be true” online baits proffered by the scammers or their “not too-alert or letting down their guard” stance when viewing or receiving online calls or messages, and then throwing caution to the winds, especially in love or investment scams.
She urged recipients of “too good to be true” or “uninvited” messages to display greater scepticism. In other words, pause before clicking, transferring, or sharing personal data—especially when pressured.
Victims of scams should also come forward to relate their experiences with the authorities to enable better data collection by enforcement agencies.
Interestingly, ACP Lai also revealed that there were some well-to-do victims who stubbornly think that they can eventually outsmart the scammers and continue to engage or be involved in the schemes but were eventually cheated in the end.
She also informed those at her presentation of the all-important number to call – 997 — the official scam response hotline operated by the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) operational from 8am to 8pm daily. The 997 hotline has been designed specifically for victims of online financial scams, including phishing, fake calls from the “authorities”, malware-related fraud, parcel scams and romance scams
Touching on love scams, ACP Lai cited the main cause of people falling victims to such frauds was sheer loneliness besides gullibility. In the same breath, she also asked the audience to ponder as to how could someone could devote so much time to woo a stranger almost 24/7 on the phone if he or she was not on to something sinister.
On a cautionary but humorous note, she reminded spouses and those in romantic liaisons to be more attentive to their partners to avoid unpleasant outcomes.
Love scammers, she explained, would first gain the trust of the stranger by constantly sending messages of sweet nothings, and then going in for the kill later. This is usually done by saying that a parcel containing a special gift for the recipient is stuck at Customs or that he or she had been innocently detained at Immigration for some trumped up charges while rushing to meet the intended “sweetheart” (actually the potential victim) located overseas, and hence they needed money to get clearance.
ACP Lai’s advice? Don’t fall for such ruses!
On investment scams, she lamented the fact many who fall prey big time to investment scammers don’t even invest in companies listed on Bursa Malaysia but yet part with hefty sums in dubious “high-returns” investment schemes abroad via online apps.
For scammers who “reek of untold misery” by asking for financial assistance from strangers because of an illness or sick relative, ACP Lai said the best defence was just to “express your sympathy and give your blessings”, and not to send money because “you don’t really know who the person is at the other end”.
She even urged those receiving such calls to query the callers as to why they had not sought help from their relatives and friends in their immediate circle and yet asked for assistance from strangers thousands of miles away. That, she said, certainly spoke a lot on the level of their relationships with people.
The community awareness event, organised by PHSWP’s economic bureau headed by Andy See under its community programme, was in collaboration with the British Graduates Association of Malaysia (BGAM).
It started with Datuk Seri Foo Sae Heng, PHSWP’s Deputy President, setting the right tone by saying that greed was often the primary cause of people getting scammed online.
Datuk Kamaruddin Md Ali, BGAM’s President and a former Chief Police Officer of Johor and PDRM’s Director of Management who spoke at a panel discussion after ACP Lai’s presentation, said he would discuss with the authorities soon on ways to quicken investigations and actions to reduce the incidence of online scams.
One of the focus areas would be to consider introducing regulations like what Singapore had done through its Protection from Scams Act 2025 (in force since July 1, 2025) where the police can issue Restriction Orders (ROs) to banks and temporarily blocking transactions if there’s reasonable belief that an individual is about to transfer money to a scammer.
Kamaruddin felt that quicker action would negate monetary transfers to mule accounts and avoid further complications when the money is transferred and fizzle out in a maze of multiple accounts known as “layering”.
Since July last year, Malaysia has increased penalties on owners of mule accounts. It is estimated that banks had also blocked some RM399 million from being fraudulently transferred to mule accounts in 2024. However, it is still a drop in the ocean as online fraud totalled almost RM1.6 billion in Malaysia last year.
Eugene Teow, a forensic computing specialist and managing director of Star Health Sdn Bhd, stressed on the importance of digital hygiene to prevent cyberthreats.
This, he said, can be done through behavioural awareness and proactive habits like maintaining strong passwords and avoid clicking on links without scrutinising their authenticity.
He suggested typing URLs manually instead of clicking suspicious links, restarting devices daily to flush out unauthorised processes and reviewing app permissions and disabling unnecessary access.
Datuk Yong Soo Heong, the moderator of the panel discussion who had earlier used a quote — “In the river of greed, even the wealthiest can drown” — to emphasise that the excessive yearning for wealth was often the trigger point of most of the successful scams, alluded to the fact that millions of mobile phone owners were potentially carrying “dangerous cargo” since their devices were constantly being targeted by scammers.
To this, Teoh again emphasised that exercising digital hygiene and vigilance were the best wall of defence against scams from occurring.
Natural health advocate Dr Capt (Rtd) Wong Ang Peng posed a question during the Question-and-Answer session as to why certain apps purportedly promoting investments by Malaysian celebrities were still being circulated although the individuals concerned had already denounced such content as fake as their identities had been stolen for the purpose. On this, ACP Lai said the local authorities were actively engaging with these foreign-based entities who often cite that the such content was “sponsored content” or had been paid for and therefore it was difficult to remove them.
WE