KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — The National Fraud Portal (NFP) has reduced the time required to trace funds by 75 per cent to just 30 minutes and increased the amount of frozen funds by 28 per cent since its launch in April 2024, according to Deputy Finance Minister Lim Hui Ying.

She said the capability of financial institutions to identify mule accounts has also increased by 14 per cent with the implementation of the NFP.

"Through the NFP, the operations of the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) are now equipped with comprehensive automation capabilities to manage fraud reports, verify and trace stolen funds, and enable early warning sharing among financial institutions so that swift action can be taken.

"The implementation of the NFP is also supported by mule account handling procedures developed by the industry to enhance the ability to identify such accounts,” she said during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

She was replying to a question from Chiew Choon Man (PH-Miri), who asked about the measures taken by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to enhance security against fraud, including attacks by third-party devices.

Lim said BNM and financial institutions are committed to strengthening the security of financial services to address the growing threat of fraud.

She said that control measures implemented since September 2022 have had a positive impact, with financial institutions blocking unauthorised and suspicious transactions worth RM383 million in 2023.

"The trend of phishing and malware fraud cases reported to the NSRC has also shown a decline,” she said.

She stressed that it is important for financial fraud victims to report the crime as soon as possible by contacting the NSRC at 997 so that financial institutions can take swift action. — Bernama