SilTerra hosted the Kedah Police and members of the Kulim Industrial Tenants Association (KITA) for the Police’s Town Hall and dialogue session. It was a jointly organized event by SilTerra, Kedah Police and KITA. Aimed to further strengthen the bond between Kedah Police and the community of Kulim Hi-Tech Park, this year’s event saw a total of 150 participants from SilTerra, Kedah Police and KITA.
The event started of with a Town Hall Session, moderated by ASP Vasu A/L Kuppusam (IPD Kulim). The objective of this session is to enhance public awareness on scams and vigilance against these sophisticated and deceitful crimes. In the two rounds of questions conyeved by ASP Vasu, the participants showed enthusiasm, keenly listening to the input by the 3 panelists; DSP Mohd Norfadzly Bin Mohd Hashim, Deputy Head of Commercial Crime Investigation Department, (IPK Kedah), En Mohd Yunus Bin Yusof, Bank Manager (Muamalat Malaysia Berhad, Kulim) and Puan Norrazlina Binti Nordin, Deputy Regulatory Director of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (Kedah).
Among the topics covered were love scams, online scam such as phishing, mule account, phone scam, identity theft, internet banking fraud and others. The panelists provided tips on how to protect yourself and what to do if you fall victim to these scams.
New banking security updates were also shared by En Mohd Yunus, account holders have to physically visit banks to change their phone number for internet banking which used to be able to be done via ATM machines. He also shared that nowadays, no one could open a new bank account without a proper justification, this is to minimize the risk of the accounts being used for internet banking scam. Admittedly, he received backlash from customers for these security updates, however, he assures that it is for the greater good.
DSP Mohd Norfadzly warns the audience to not simply lend money to scammers disguised as friends or family. Their voices could be easily modulated using AI applications, protect yourself by asking a lot of questions, especially trick questions to identify your loved ones. On occasions, scammers will resort to desperate measures such as faking an emergency or kidnapping. In this situation, remain calm, verify the information and seek help from authorities, if needed, before responding.
Sextortion scams are a type of phishing attack whereby people are coerced to pay a ransom because they have been threatened with sharing a picture or video of them in the nude or performing sensual acts. These scams are designed to play on the victim’s emotions with the expectation of the rash decision to pay ransom. Puan Norrazlina advised everyone to not take the bait and succumb to the modus operandi “Even if it is really you in the picture, no one could prove it is you unless you admit to it. With the emergence of Deepfake and other applications to digitally alter a person’s face, no one could prove it was you.” She strongly advised everyone to stay calm and report the scammer to the authorities.
The Q&A session was quite interesting, Chim from Infineon asked “If my money was taken away from my bank account after being scammed, is there a possibility that I will get my money back?” DSP Mohd Norfadzly answered, “The chances of getting the money back is highly unlikely. This is due to the many levels of transactions and processes that are sometimes untraceable. The money will not stay for long in one place. This is also the reason why the Police and the Bank is pushing for awareness and vigilance on this matter.”
Puzi asked “Apps such as Whos Call and Truecaller are recommended to identify the callers. Two days ago, I received a call that was clearly reported as scammer. My question is, why are these numbers still active and not blocked?” Puan Norrazlina responded that apps such as “Truecaller and Whos Call are not under MCMC. The contact names that appeared through these apps are saved by the app users. If you have legitimate suspicion that the contacts saved are real scammers, please lodge an official report so the numbers can be blocked.”
“Can you share with us the percentage of the scam crimes solved?” asked Hisham. He also joked that there are a lot of people who would ask for loans from friends and would never pay the existing loans but keep on borrowing from other people, can we also categorize these people as scammers? The audience chuckled in response. DSP Mohd Norfadzly replied that, “The clearance rate for scam crimes is quite high. However, in most cases, clearing a crime means at least one suspect or one mule account was tracked and charged with the crime. The masterminds are still at large. Hence, the public should always be careful and update themselves on the current scam tactics.”
The second session continued with the Kedah’s Chief of Police Dialogue Session with the Kulim Industrial Tenants Association (KITA). SilTerra is proud to be associated with the Police’s initiative to drive partnerships with community members of KITA to ensure safety. We were able to observe the police forces gather valuable insights while providing solutions to safety related issues highlighted by the participants.
This initiative represents SilTerra’s ongoing efforts with its stakeholders to achieve common goals and objectives which aligns with SilTerra’s commitment to ensure a safe environment for all employees, contractors, visitors and customers. We believe that community policing plays a crucial role in ensuring security and maintaining a stable environment for economic growth and prosperity.