Banking Industry Launches Refreshed #JanganKenaScam Awareness Campaign

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

3rd October 2023 - 3 min read

The banking industry has launched the refreshed the #JanganKenaScam national awareness campaign today, seeking to strengthen its efforts in combatting financial scams and fraudulent banking activities, as well as to convey an even more unified message in educating the public. Rolled out with the cooperation of the member banks of the Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and the Association of Islamic Banking and Financial Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), the campaign is also supported by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM).

In a joint statement, the bank associations said that the refreshed campaign will be carried out on a greater scale than before, this time with a #JanganKenaScam Fest being organised in urban and suburban areas across Malaysia. To start, it will be held at Bertam (Penang) from today until 8 October 2023 – in conjunction with Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia – before moving to 1 Utama Shopping Centre in Petaling Jaya from 15 to 19 November.

The public will be able to check out experiential booths and informational exhibitions to brush up on their knowledge on scam-related topics, including scam tactics and ways to protect themselves.

Both ABM and AIBIM further cited data from a scam awareness survey by Rakuten Insights to highlight the importance of this refreshed campaign. For instance, nine out of ten customers said that they read scam alerts to learn about latest scam tactics, but only close to 60% feel ready to deal with scams. Furthermore, close to 80% of customers believe victims inadvertently reveal their banking credentials in scams.

“We hope that the experiential aspect of the #JanganKenaScam campaign, coupled with the introduction of the anti-scam resource centre at the JanganKenaScam website, can provide the public with an avenue that enables them to understand the manipulation techniques used by scammers in financial scams,” said the chairman of ABM, Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli.

Similarly, the president of AIBIM, Dato’ Mohd Muazzam Mohamed said that the #JanganKenaScam campaign is a significant part of the banking industry’s efforts in raising awareness and fighting against scams. He also stated that AIBIM and all its partners will continue to educate and equip the public with the necessary knowledge and tools to protect their online financial transactions.

Meanwhile, governor of BNM, Datuk Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour stressed that such industry-led initiatives are important in educating the masses. “While security and technology measures are important, public awareness remains our strongest defence,” he commented.

The #JanganKenaScam campaign was first introduced by the banking industry in October last year, under the umbrella National Scam Awareness Campaign. In addition to rolling out awareness campaigns, banks in Malaysia have also implemented various security measures to fight scams since last year, as directed by BNM and the government. These include migrating from SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) to a safer verification option, imposing a cooling-off period for selected transactions and banking activities, as well as introducing kill switches for customers.

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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