Minister To Discuss E Tunai Belia Scams At Cabinet Meeting Tomorrow

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The issue of e-Tunai Belia Rahmah scams will be raised at the cabinet meeting tomorrow, said Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
This comes after reports that beneficiaries of the aid programme have been falling prey to scams while attempting to cash out the RM200 credit received.
"We are waiting for information from the Finance Ministry.
"InsyaAllah, I will try to get more information at tomorrow's cabinet meeting, so we can see if (the matter) only involves the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) or other aspects and agencies," he briefly told reporters after officiating the 2023 Courier Appreciation Day ceremony in Putrajaya today.
On Sunday, Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the police have received 14 complaints of fraud thus far - amounting to a loss of RM2,800.
He said the syndicate offered a service to transfer money from the victim’s Touch n Go e-wallet to their bank account.
The case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code, he added.
The Finance Ministry also issued a warning to all beneficiaries not to fall prey to scams in attempting to cash out the RM200 credit.
In a statement, it said that the RM200 for each beneficiary can be used at over 1.7 million businesses nationwide, and to pay for services and online purchases through DuitNow.
The attempt to cash out the funds defeats the intended purpose of the programme, which aims to help 18 to 20-year-old youths and full-time higher education institution students to familiarise themselves with cashless payment facilities and at the same time, ease their financial burden.
Disinformation busting
Separately, Fahmi said that Malaysia will not follow suit with Australia in holding companies accountable for failing to remove disinformation and misinformation from their platforms.
Instead, he said that consistent engagements will be held with social media giants to settle such issues.
"At this time we are not heading in that direction as we are having consistent and proactive engagements (with these companies).
"We've previously held engagements with TikTok, Twitter, Meta and recently Grab.
"This evening we will meet with Meta after receiving complaints from Bursa Malaysia that its chief executive officer Muhamad Umar Swift's identity has been misused," he added.
Australia recently proposed laws to impose a new code on companies that repeatedly fail to combat misinformation and disinformation or an industry-wide “standard” to force digital platforms to remove harmful content.
The maximum penalty for systemic breaches of the code would be A$2.75 million (RM8.5 million) or two percent of global turnover, whichever figure is higher. - Mkini

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