Royal Malaysia Police warns of GoPayz scam via WhatsApp

Royal Malaysia Police in their Cyber Crimes Alert Facebook page warns of a new type of scam that involves TAC or OTP numbers. The police shared a post by a Facebook user who shared her experience on the matter, along with a link to another case where a 63-year-old man lost more than RM80,000 in the scam.

“Careful, everyone! I nearly got scammed by this number. They asked me to share a TAC number to them multiple times but I refused because I found it so weird. Finally, I blocked the number,” said Nur Khairunnisa Shaharum on Facebook.

Nur Khairunnisa shared screenshots (above) of the conversation between her and the suspect. They started with how they “tried to register for GoPayz account” for their big brother, but they “accidentally typed in Nur Khairunnisa’s number”.

They then continued to push for her to give them a GoPayz TAC number sent to her phone multiple times. Nur Khairunnisa then said that “GoPayz advised her to not share any TAC number” and she proceeded to block the suspect.

“The next day, I tried withdrawing from the ATM but failed. I tried to do an online transaction and failed too. It seems like the suspect tried to hack into my account. Maybank is really fact and pro-active, they instantly blocked my account. So I had to walk into a Maybank branch, and get a new ATM card and re-register for M2U,” she wrote.

The Royal Malaysia Police also sourced an article from Sinar Harian about a 63-year-old man who received a call from an individual using the name Nurhidayah, asking for a TAC number sent to his phone. According to him, the suspect claimed that the phone number was registered on the suspect’s GoPayz account—just like what Nur Khairunnisa experienced.

The man ended up losing RM88,379.94 through 33 transactions. He only realised he was scammed when his bank contacted him about having so much money moved into an unknown third party account.

Just as a reminder, do be wary of when someone asks for a TAC or OTP number. Those numbers sent to your phone are often heeded with a warning “Never share your TAC!”—and you really shouldn’t. It’s recommended that you switch your passwords every three months, including for your online bank account. Several BigPay users had also faced similar scams. BigPay has constantly issued reminders not to share your OTP with anyone, including individuals that claim to be from BigPay.

You can even watch this episode of Let’s Talk About. Amin and Alex discussed some of the more common ways people get scammed and provide some top tips to help keep you safe during these trying times.

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