KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Countries can work together to combat increasingly sophisticated online scams that have evolved into highly organized transnational criminal operations, a Malaysian expert has said.
R. Paneir Selvam, principal consultant at Arunachala Research & Consultancy and a former lecturer at HELP University, told Xinhua in a recent interview that online fraud is no longer confined to a single country.
It has evolved into "a highly organized transnational criminal enterprise that exploits differences in legal systems, technology and law enforcement capacity," said Selvam, who is also a researcher and writer.
He said fraudsters are now capable of spoofing official telephone numbers, impersonating government agencies, and manipulating victims into believing they are facing criminal investigations, immigration violations or banking irregularities.
"These are not isolated scams but components of an increasingly professional criminal ecosystem," he said.
Against this backdrop, Selvam sees greater scope for countries to expand cooperation beyond conventional police exchanges, particularly through more regular intelligence sharing on online fraud networks, recruitment channels and financial facilitators.
Financial intelligence cooperation is equally important, he said, noting that banks, financial intelligence units, cryptocurrency regulators and telecommunications authorities can work together on rapid mechanisms to identify and freeze suspicious transactions linked to ongoing scam investigations.
Selvam also highlighted the role of the private sector. Telecommunications companies can strengthen caller authentication technologies to detect spoofed numbers, while social media platforms and messaging applications can step up efforts to identify fraudulent accounts and share relevant threat intelligence with law enforcement agencies.
Financial institutions, meanwhile, can further use behavioral analytics to identify unusual transfer patterns associated with scam activities, he said.
Looking ahead, Selvam said closer intelligence coordination, faster disruption of illicit financial flows, stronger public-private cooperation and sustained preventive education would be important in responding to increasingly sophisticated scam networks.
As cybercrime increasingly transcends national borders, effective responses will depend on sustained international cooperation, intelligence sharing and coordinated action among governments, financial institutions, technology companies and regional partners, Selvam added.
"Only through such a comprehensive approach can the operating space for organized scam syndicates be systematically reduced," he said. ■
