Scam alert: Ignore all calls claiming to be from ‘Mahkamah’ or Police

Scam calls claiming to be from the police or other government bodies aren’t new but despite widely publicized cases of unsuspecting folks losing their money to scammers, many continue to fall prey to such scams.

The latest tactic used by scammers is to employ automated call messages, mimicking the sort of procedure one normally go through when calling government offices.

Without having to rely on an actual person to make the scam calls, scammers are able to scale up their devious operations very quickly, before moving on to something else.

The modus operandi typically involves you receiving a call that once picked up, plays an automated voice message, claiming that the call is made from the Malaysian court (Ini ialah panggilan dari pihak Mahkamah).

The voice message will say that you are required to appear for a court hearing, typically related to traffic summons or sometimes, a serious sounding traffic accident case, and asks to key-in your identity card number.

We have reached out to the Malaysian Federal Court, whose corporate communications department has confirmed that Malaysian courts will never make telephone calls to any member of the public for any court-related matters.

It also advised that anyone who have already revealed their identity number over the phone to scammers, to make a police report immediately.

It’s same when dealing with the police. The Royal Malaysian police will never contact anyone to ask for their personal details. If a person is required to assist in an investigation, the police will simply ask the person to head to a police station.

If you receive such calls, hang up and block the number.