KUALA LUMPUR (March 30): Complaints about financial fraud, especially Internet, investment and phone scams, were among the top five issues raised by the public on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) BNMTELELINK in 2021.
In its Annual Report 2021 released on Wednesday (March 30), the central bank said it had continued to step up its efforts to educate the public on financial fraud together with other enforcement agencies, including the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Royal Malaysia Police.
Due to the pandemic, BNM’s customer service centres and regional offices were closed to walk-in engagements for most of the year.
As such, BNMTELELINK became one of its main contact points, where members of the public and businesses were able to reach the central bank through the phone, email or online presence.
“Despite the physical movement restrictions, we maintained a high number of engagements with around 300,000 interactions during the year,” it said.
One of BNM’s key initiatives was to warn the public of scams by posting alerts on the Amaran Scam page on Facebook, with more than 320 postings throughout the year.
Since its launch in 2020, the page has gained 39,000 followers.
“During the year, we also observed an 11.2% decline in scam-related queries and complaints received by BNM,” it said.
BNM also broadcasted a seven-episode webinar series on financial scams in conjunction with the Financial Literacy Month in…
