RECENTLY Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil confronted a major social media company and also a popular messaging platform both associated with rampant online scams.
He had also directed telcos to bar “URL” links in SMS. It is a good start. But when will our government come up with comprehensive cyber laws to fight scammers?
While ordinary people have become easy prey for scammers almost daily, for online technology giants such as Big Tech, banks and telcos it does seem like it is business as usual.
They continue to rake in billions of ringgit, seemingly unconcerned about the hideous crimes being committed on their clients right under their noses.
It is common knowledge that scammers predominantly operate either through online tech firms or through telcos, the stolen funds are then channelled or siphoned out through banks.
So by being passive participants, are they not all technically “mules” for scammers?
It is true, technology has brought about tremendous blessings to all of us but it has also unwittingly ushered in “online robbers” and scammers right into our homes.
As it is, the cyber world is already the perfect epitome of lawlessness. It is little wonder then that cybercriminals are having a field day. After all, they seem to enjoy the “tacit” approval from the big boys.
Indeed, social media users regardless of whether they are business people or individuals are virtually not accountable to anyone and they can post whatever they like.
After all, are the tech companies ever going to vet through every detail? Of course, not. Their ultimate and perhaps only goal is to reap as much ad revenue as possible by milking big data.
All these factors bring us to the unavoidable question, should online technology giants including social media sites, messaging/video-sharing platforms and others be subject to some form of governmental regulation?
Of course, those with vested interests, including business people and politicians especially for propaganda and election campaigning purposes, plus many in the IT industry will immediately jump and scream “no”. Perhaps, therein lies the crux of the problem.
Technology has divided us and weakened our resolve to fight scams. It looks like we have become pawns in a proxy war between money and morals.
Log in to the internet or open your social media accounts and immediately dodgy news headlines, fake advertisements and dubious “sponsored” articles jostle for our attention.
But are there any authorities overseeing all the “trash” posted on those platforms?
Even former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin was comically featured in a fake investment advert.
Did the social media operator manage to identify the scammer who posted this and penalise him?
The bottom line is we cannot allow online technology giants and their cronies to do as they please. They have indeed made our lives so much easier but at what cost?
Their inaction has brought us to the mess we are in today with online scams having spiralled out of control. It is obvious that in Malaysia our cyber protection laws are insufficient and lack bite.
Recently, a powerful set of laws to stop scams and protect the public called the “Online Safety Bill” was presented in the United Kingdom.
It is aimed at stopping scams at the source and also making sure that online technology giants and their cohorts never profit from online fraud.
Our government should take the cue from that and consider the following measures:
0 Strictly ban all unsolicited calls/sms from banks, insurance companies and others promoting finance-related products;
0 Compel telcos to utilise algorithms to bar “SIM farms” and mass text aggregators used by cyber criminals to send out fraudulent texts and scam emails in bulk form;
0 Get telcos to make it difficult for overseas scammers to “spoof” local numbers so that people here will know straight away if the call is coming from say, Cambodia or Myanmar. They can also offer an option to users to bar all incoming overseas calls. This may help to reduce the number of Macau Scam cases where the victims are usually the elderly and pensioners;
0 Enact new laws that empower authorities to take down fraudulent/phishing websites swiftly and ensure genuine fraud victims get back their money like what is being implemented in Singapore;
0 Introduce tough penalties/sanctions for tech companies, financial institutions, telcos and others who do not comply with our cyber laws – not just impose mere fines; and
0 Make combating cyber fraud a priority for our police force by empowering them with additional manpower and state-of-the-art resources/tools.
Telcos should be more proactive in tackling the issue as these days almost every “unknown number” that appears on our handphones is likely to be a scam call.
If our government, tech industry players, especially the major social media and messaging platforms as well as banks and telcos, don’t get their act together, soon advanced AI-powered voice scams will start to hit us big time.
Maybe it is only a matter of time before “super-scammers” collaborating with overseas hackers start siphoning out huge sums of money from big corporations and government accounts. By then it will be too late to fight them.
Comments: letters@thesundaily.com