To prevent widespread fraud by irresponsible parties, the government is looking at a proposal to filter websites using sebenarnya.my with a verification stamp to filter websites that offer fake businesses or services.
Bernama quoted Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil who said that the ministry will be studying on the viability of the move as scammers are known to be cunning and would employ tactics to make it difficult to filter fake offers.
He said among the common problems are scams offering financial assistance of RM200 – RM1,000 supposedly from a government agency with a website that resembles a government website
The problem is when it is closed because it only involves coding or changing hosting and so on, they can copy and paste these websites.
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil
The best way to overcome this, according to the Minister, is to improve digital literacy so people would be less susceptible to these scams.
He said this as a response to a supplementary question from the Alor Setar MP Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden on the government’s willingness to identify websites that offer fake services and publish the names on the sebenarnya.my website for public information.
One complaint so far for renovation scams
Fahmi also answered a query by Seputeh MP Teresa Kok Suh Sim on renovation scams saying that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has only received one complaint so far.
Checks found that that the content no longer exists or has been taken down by the website administrator.
The Seputeh MP asked the Minister the number of complaints about renovation scams that have been reported to the MCMC and also the number of scam renovation websites that are facing action as well as measures taken to deal with the renovation scam cases.
Fahmi also clarified saying that scams that involve money fall under the jurisdiction of the Royal Malaysian Police, whether it’s online or offline and they are also responsible for blocking sites.
The Minister added that MCMC provides technical assistance in relation to the investigation, such as providing digital forensic analysis information and implements sanctions based on applications from the authorities.
