Pahang folks will receive advise and alerts on the dangers of cyber crime via short message service (SMS) starting Friday, to create awareness and prevent people from falling prey to such scams.
Pahang Police Chief Sharifuddin Ab Ghani said the effort was an initiative by the Pahang Commercial Crime Division with the cooperation of Celcom Malaysia Berhad.
For a start, five SMS would be sent to Celcom subscribers outlining the types of cyber crimes – requests for transfer of money from accounts; offers to buy miracle stones; cyber friends, cheap lottery tickets with lucrative prize money; asking for personal details and bank accounts claiming the recipient had won prizes – as an effort to alert them of the dangers.
He said police, Celcom and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission would monitor the progress and effectiveness of such messages for a month.
“We hope the people will receive the initiative well and give their full cooperation to the police so as to combat cyber crime,” he told reporters after launching the SMS awareness programme yesterday.
Sharifuddin said from January to Dec 17, cyber crime cases had increased from 309 involving RM1.8 million last year to 377 cases involving RM2 million for the same period this year.
“Many people are duped into buying expensive ornaments online, lose money from bank accounts after giving personal details, or interact with false email address, buy fake lottery tickets purportedly for draws in Hong Kong and buying mystical stones (miracle stones) are among common cases,” he said.
– Bernama
Yalinie Mathan
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