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KUALA LUMPUR, December 2 – Five telecommunications companies and nearly 100 content providers are allegedly involved in a scam that has stolen RM100 million from prepaid credit users. The scam is expected to last 10 years.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has reported that the content providers involved would send multiple types of SMS to prepaid credit users. They would then be charged between RM0.50 and RM5 for each SMS sent without the victims knowing.
These scams often contain interactive content such as games, ringtones, and wallpapers. Once received by the victims, their prepaid credit will be deducted immediately.
According to MACC’s investigation since March, they found that this scam involved people who worked for telecommunications companies. They included “many different important roles in business.” Last month, it was reported that several telecommunications officials, including a former telecommunications CMO and CTO, were referred by the MACC to assist in the investigations.
“Roles known to take bribes related to the scam include payment officers, budget coordinators, exclusive content producers, government providers, product managers, project managers and other important roles. According to our research, they worked together at the content provider companies to solve the scam, “said MACC.
The people involved in the scam were paid between RM 100,000 and RM 200,000 each. MACC also mentioned that personal data that was illegally obtained from telecom insiders was also sold to other parties such as affiliated online marketing agencies.
It is not yet known whether this move by MACC has stopped the flow of the SMS scam as they are investigating other telcos as well. If you have recently received one of the scam messages, you can click here to report it on the MACC complaint form. – SoyaCincau
