KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — The government will consider a proposal to filter websites that offer fake businesses or services through the sebenarnya.my portal with a verification stamp to prevent widespread fraud by irresponsible parties.

Minister of Communications and Digital Fahmi Fadzil said the ministry will study the matter thoroughly, including technically, on the viability of the move as the scammers were cunning and would use their tactics to make it difficult to filter the fake offers.

“One of the problems that is often faced by the sebenarnya.my is when some quarters make an offer of (financial) assistance of RM200 — RM1000 supposedly from a government agency with a website that looks like a government website.

“The problem is when it is closed because it only involves coding or changing hosting and so on, they can copy and paste these websites,” he said during a question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.

Therefore, Fahmi said, the best way to overcome these activities is to improve digital literacy in society so that people become more alert and would not become victims of online fraud

He was responding to a supplementary question from Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden (PN-Alor Setar) about the government’s willingness to identify websites that offer fake services and publish the names on the sebenarnya.my website for public information.

Meanwhile, Fahmi said that so far the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has only received one complaint relating to renovation scams.

“Checks found that that the content no longer exists or has been taken down by the website administrator,” he said in response to an original question from Teresa Kok Suh Sim (DAP — Seputeh).

Kok wanted to know the number of complaints about renovation scams reported to the MCMC and the number of websites involved in the renovation scams that are facing action by the MCMC, as well as measures taken to deal with the renovation scam cases.

Fahmi clarified that scams that involved money, whether online or offline, come under the jurisdiction of the Royal Malaysia Police, which is also responsible for taking follow-up actions such as website blocking.

The MCMC provides technical assistance in relation to the investigation, he said, adding that the MCMC also provides digital forensic analysis information and implements sanctions based on applications from the authorities. — Bernama