PETALING JAYA: The National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) must be empowered with permanent officers with the proper authority to ensure the effectiveness of their work, says Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf.

He said the agency should be strengthened with the appointment of such officers with the powers to investigate, trace and confiscate funds from scammers.

“To ensure that the NSRC can be a response centre on online scamming, there is an urgent need for it to be equipped with the latest technology and expertise through proper training and sufficient allocations from the government,” he said.

Although there is much cooperation from the police and financial institutions in exposing mule accounts and the modus operandi of scammers, Comm Ramli said the NSRC needs to be more advanced in staffing and technology. 

A common scam that Malaysians tend to fall for involves getting calls from so-called financial institutions, service providers or other “authorities” which dupe them into revealing their bank details or transferring their money to them.

“The other type is e-financial crime which uses tactics involving phishing, love scams, online purchases and non-existent loans or investments,” he said.

For now, Comm Ramli said the police are the only authority with the powers to investigate, track down and arrest scammers.

The CCID is assisted by other units such as the Police Cyber Investigation Response Centre (PCIRC), he said.

He explained that the CCID investigation unit would go through cases which had taken place and the information received so that it could study the trends in Malaysia.

“The PCIRC is responsible for monitoring social media content with criminal elements including scamming.

“The information is then channelled to other units for investigation,” he said.

He was of the view that NSRC should be a one-stop centre with all the right powers and authority to enable effective detection and tracking down of scammers using various resources.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/17/empower-nsrc-for-it-to-be-effective