Banks Band Together To Launch #JanganKenaScam Awareness Campaign

Banks that fall under The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) have come together to collectively launch a new and improved version of the #JanganKenaScam awareness campaign.

This national scam awareness campaign is a milestone for the banking industry and shows its commitment to combating financial scams and strengthening its efforts to prevent fraudulent banking activities.

With the increasing digitalisation of the world around us, it is hard to ignore the steady uptrend of financial scams. In response, the #JanganKenaScam campaign is being launched at a greater scale than before, to raise public awareness with a nationwide roll-out of the #JanganKenaScam Fest in urban and suburban areas.

The campaign will involve an array of experiential booths and informational exhibitions in order to arm Malaysians with practical anti-scam knowledge so that they easily identify and defend themselves and their loved ones against such malicious attacks.

“While security and technology measures are important, public awareness remains our strongest defence. Indeed, educating the public against scams is an ongoing effort that must go on. I commend the private sector’s work in coordinating industry-wide anti-scam strategies through its industry taskforce. Such industry-led initiatives are testament to the private sector’s high level of commitment,” said Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour, Governor, Bank Negara Malaysia in his opening address at the launch of the campaign.

Earlier this year, the banking industry banded together to implement improved security measures to combat financial scams. Some examples include the migration from SMS One-Time-Password (OTP), tightening of fraud detection rules, imposing a cooling-off period for first-time online banking registration, restricting secure authentication to a single device, and setting up dedicated fraud hotlines for customers.

According to an industry survey on scam awareness for bank customers conducted by Rakuten Insights from June to July 2023, nine out of 10 customers read scam alerts, making them up-to-date on the latest scam tactics, however only close to 60% feel prepared to fight financial scams.

“To fight scammers, we first need to learn their language. We hope that the experiential aspect of the #JanganKenaScam campaign, coupled with the introduction of the anti-scam resource centre at www.JanganKenaScam.com, can provide the public with an avenue that enables them to understand the manipulation techniques used by scammers in financial scams. We encourage the public to take up this fight with us so we can defeat scammers together. Customers should remain alert at all times, and not share their banking information with anyone,” said ABM Chairman Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli.

“The survey further revealed that close to 80% of customers believe victims inadvertently revealed their banking credentials in scams. This further underlines the importance of this collective effort by the banking industry and other stakeholders such as Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) just to name a few, to make the #JanganKenaScam campaign bigger than before so we can empower the public with the knowledge and tools they need to protect themselves from evolving threats. Together, we can create an even safer and more secure banking environment,” added Dato’ Khairussaleh.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to protect the financial well-being of our community. The refreshed #JanganKenaScam campaign is a significant part of our efforts to raise awareness and fight against scams. We will continue to promote scam awareness campaigns to educate individuals and equip them with the necessary knowledge and tools to protect their online financial transactions,” said AIBIM President, Dato’ Mohd Muazzam Mohamed.

The #JanganKenaScam Fest will be travelling to various locations nationwide, providing Malaysians with ample opportunity to participate and learn more about financial scams and how to defend themselves. Starting with the Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia (MSAM) in Bertam, Penang from now until 8 October 2023, the next stop will be in 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya from 15 to 19 November 2023.

For more tips and information, readers can visit the campaign site here.