KUALA LUMPUR: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said has dismissed claims suggesting that there were more than a million phone scam cases reported in the country throughout last year.
Azalina said the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) received 95,094 calls from its inception in October 2022 to May this year.
The calls received by the NSRC, she said, include reports on fraud cases and advisory services to the public.
"Therefore, the claims that over a million phone scams in 2023 is not true," she said, in a parliamentary response yesterday to Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam).
Wee asked for an explanation on the surge of more than a million phone scams last year and to what extent actions have been taken to curb the increasingly rampant issue.
Azalina added as of May this year, the NSRC reported that the police have opened a total of 10,649 investigation papers for fraud under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
"Additionally, 74 investigation papers have been opened for money laundering offences, which led to the freezing of 637 accounts amounting to RM72.38 million."
She said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had also taken action to block phone numbers used by scammers.
"As of May, a total of 131 phone numbers had been terminated for being involved in fraudulent activities and 112 questionable phone numbers had been blocked."