Survey Reveals Those Who Avoided Scams Regularly Read Scam Alerts

It appears that scam awareness alerts that are provided by banks are proving themselves rather effective. They do actually inform the  public about fraudsters and protect the bank customers.

According to a survey conducted by the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM), four out of five customers who have successfully avoided scams also actively read scam alerts from their banks. This shows a positive correlation between scam education and scam prevention.

The Perception Survey on Financial Scams was commissioned by the banking industry and conducted by Rakuten Insights from June to July 2023.

Scams happen when victims reveal banking information

The survey revealed encouraging statistics on respondents’ level of scam understanding and interesting insights on their views on financial scams. Some of the key findings include:

• Close to 80 percent of the respondents believe that scams happen due to victims inadvertently revealing their banking information to fraudsters and not due to any breach in banking systems 
• More than half of the respondents feel capable of managing and handling financial scams. In addition, those who always read and understand banks’ scam awareness alerts are shown to be 15 percent more prepared to fight scams
• About 70 percent of the respondents are satisfied with the banks’ current efforts in creating awareness about financial scams

When asked to identify scam tactics, most respondents managed to do so successfully, scoring above 60 percent on average for 11 different scam types. This includes the most common ones such as phone or malware scams.

63% of respondents have had close contact with scams

Additionally, 76% of those polled also revealed that scam prevention is the topic that they are most interested in.

“The evolution of scams present new challenges to banks and customers alike, as fraudsters adjust manipulation tactics to suit current banking or shopping trends.

“In response to these dynamic challenges, banks have continued to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to protecting our customers’ financial well-being by introducing enhanced security measures regularly, on top of a national scam awareness campaign to educate the masses,” said ABM Chairman Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli.

“We know from the survey that 63% have had close contact with financial scams, either having been a victim or know someone who was a victim. This shows the importance of taking scam education seriously – the public should always be vigilant and do not assume that they will not be targeted by scammers as scams do not discriminate against one’s age, gender or location. Banks will continue arming our customers with the necessary scam knowledge and tools in fostering a more resilient and empowered banking community against scams,” he added.

Source: ABM, AIBIM #JanganKenaScam

Bank websites, push notifications more effective to deliver scam alerts

One interesting thing to note was that online banking websites and mobile push notifications were the most effective channels to deliver scam alerts, compared to SMSes, emails, and social media posts. 

The survey was participated by over 1,200 bank customers. It also highlighted potential areas of improvement for banks, particularly in providing sufficient information to selected customer segments who may not have ready access to anti-scam materials, such as the elderly and the less technologically savvy.

In order to raise even more awareness on the issue, the banking industry launched the refreshed #JanganKenaScam national awareness campaign in October 2023 in order to further raise awareness and arm the public with the necessary knowledge to prevent themselves from getting scammed.

The #JanganKenaScam first launched in early October. For more information, you can check out this article.