Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), in collaboration with PayNet and financial institutions have launched the National Fraud Portal (NFP), an integrated platform that is designed to strengthen the collective ability of the financial industry to combat financial scams.

Specifically, the NFP enhances the operational capabilities in handling scam reports and the tracing of stolen funds by the National Scan Response Centre (NSRC). The NFP, which despite its name is not a consumer-facing product, is more of a technical centralisation of the various financial institutions specifically for managing and combating financial scams, ultimately leading to a more efficient process and a higher likelihood of fund recovery.

With the introduction of the NFP, there are three key improvements:

• Automated fund tracing and recovery: stolen funds can now be traced faster across the entire financial system. With this, funds can be prevented from being transferred or withdrawn out of the system, increasing the chances of fund recovery.
• Industry-wide sharing and collaboration: financial institutions have a centralised platform to share information and intelligence on fraud incidences.
• Data-driven assessments of mule accounts: with a centralised platform, the NSRC can build credible data on mule accounts to facilitate better and more accurate identification, assessment, and monitoring of mules.

In addition, alongside the launch of the NFP, BNM has also announced a standardised approach for the management of mule accounts. With a streamlined classification and SOP, it also ensures fair treatment to account holders affected by mule account activities can continue to access basic financial services.

The NFP, which is developed and administered by PayNet, is expected to further reduce the incidence and losses incurred by financial scam victims. Since the introduction of the five key measures to combat financial scams in 2022 and the launch of the nationwide Jangan Kena Scam campaign in 2023, the additional security measures and heightened awareness have resulted in a 28% reduction of reported cases to the NSRC of fraudulent transactions involving phishing and malware.

BNM stresses that members of the public need only to remember to contact the NSRC at 997 as soon as they encounter any suspicious or unauthorised transactions.

Source: https://ringgitplus.com/en/blog/personal-finance-news/bnm-partners-strengthen-efforts-against-financial-scams-with-national-fraud-portal.html