Malaysia Ranks Number 1 Out Of 5 Countries With The Most Mobile Number Breaches
The top three private information leaks in Malaysia are phone numbers, passwords, and names.
Malaysia has taken the number one spot for a country with the most cell phone number breaches, ranking ahead of Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and South Korea
According to the Gogolook 2022 Annual Fraud Report, which surveyed five countries, 73% of mobile phone numbers, which belong to more than 21 million Malaysians, were leaked or sold to scammers.
Other than phone numbers, the report also stated that the top three countries with the most private information leaks, such as login passwords and names, were Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan.
With stolen information, scammers could initiate phone and message attacks, while some may even receive "unsolicited packages with payment request upon arrival".
The top three personal data leaks for Malaysia are password, phone number, and name.
Image via Gogolook 2022 Annual Fraud Report
Whoscall, a 100 million download caller ID application with the largest database in East Asia and Southeast Asia, powered by Gogolook, had identified over 405.4 million scam calls and messages that happened globally in 2022
The report stated that scammers prioritise text messages because of its high penetration rate and low cost nature. As a result, it contributed to 76% of messages being used as the 'first contact' in fraud cases.
Whoscall supported this statement by saying that 95% of fraud attacks in Japan and up to 80% of fraud attacks in Taiwan, South Korea, and Malaysia use messages instead of calls.
Image via Gogolook 2022 Annual Fraud Report
To fight against fraud effectively, Malaysia deployed new reporting systems through its National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) where the public can report fraud cases by dialing the 997 hotline
According to New Straits Times, the Royal Malaysian Police Malaysia (PDRM) collaborated with Whoscall recently to enhance the fraud number database.
The collaboration involves PDRM's Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) portal sharing their fraud number database with the Whoscall data system, creating the most updated and reliable caller ID application for Malaysians to protect themselves against fraud crimes.
Gogolook said the public needs to be aware of scammers' latest modus operandi (MO) from time to time.
According to the report, the emerging MO in Malaysia includes scammers pushing baits for victims to receive one-time password (OTP) authentication codes with false claims of smartphone malfunctions.
"At times, it can be tough to differentiate scams but with technology, you can now download Whoscall as your first line of defense against scammers as it screens all incoming messages and calls through its proprietary database with over 1.6 billion phone number entries in real-time globally," the report added.
Early this year Bukit Aman and WhosCall announced a collaboration to combat online fraud:
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