KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 11 — Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) is collaborating with Whoscall, powered by Gogolook, to combat the rising scam calls that are plaguing Malaysians. The collaboration saw PDRM and Whoscall giving away one million free Whoscall premium accounts to Malaysians as a safeguard against scam calls.
The one-year Whoscall premium provides users access to diverse anti-scam tools such as Caller ID, Auto Spam Calls Block, Auto Update Database including its latest feature Auto WhatsApp Caller ID, and URL Scanner all without ads.
Manwoo Joo, Chief Operating Officer of Gogolook said, “According to the 2023 Asia Scam Report recently published by Global Anti-Scam Alliance (Gasa) and Gogolook, victims’ inability to recognise scams was identified as the primary factor contributing to their susceptibility. Malaysia is the 3rd lowest country among 11 other Asian regions in terms of confidence level in recognising a scam. Phone calls (82.7 per cent) is the leading channel used by scammers in Malaysia followed by SMS (51.5 per cent) and instant messaging apps (42.9 per cent).
“This report highlights the urgent need for a real-time preventive step and Whoscall is ready to act as the first line of defence against scams. It is equipped with a powerful anti-fraud technology application with the largest database in East Asia and South-east Asia with 2.6 billion entries and over 100 million downloads to-date. Through our contribution of 1 Million Whoscall Premium, we can proactively safeguard 1 million Malaysians from being scammed.”
The app takes in public contribution for scam numbers as a crowd-sourced information for the database, and then lists it in the app number database where the numbers can appear accordingly — with labels saying scam or otherwise. It is also able to differentiate your own phonebook numbers and an unknown number so that you are not fooled by someone pretending to be your loved ones.
Datuk Sri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, Director of Bukit Aman Commercial Criminal Investigation Department (CCID) who delivered a speech at the Scam Free Malaysia Carnival said, “Data shows that the number of online fraud cases for the year 2023 has increased by 37.5 per cent. 32,462 cases of online fraud with a loss value of RM1,319 million were recorded from January to November 2023. Meanwhile, during the same period in 2022, the record was a total of 23,608 cases involving a loss value of RM771.1 million.
Based on these figures, we anticipate that cases of online fraud will continue to increase if appropriate preventive measures are not taken from now. PDRM is pleased that Whoscall has stepped forward to join hands with PDRM in this battle against scams. Leveraging on its powerful anti-fraud technology, Malaysians can now protect themselves in real-time against online scams by downloading the Whoscall app.”
Malaysians can redeem the one-year Whoscall Premium for free before 31 March 2024, or until accounts runs out. They can use the promo code PDRMLawanScams. — SoyaCincau
