Bursa Malaysia cautions public on investment scams

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia is urging the public to be wary of and alert to investment scams as it has noted an increase in reports of such cases, with scammers using various social media channels, including popular chat applications such as Whatsapp, Telegram and iMessage, to lure unsuspecting members of the public to participate in dubious schemes.

Bursa Malaysia advises the public to be vigilant when approached by parties misrepresenting themselves as being from the exchange operator, its employees or endorsed third party agents.

According to a report issued by the Ministry of Communications and Digital, Malaysians lost almost RM600 million in 2022, up from RM511 million in 2021, due to online scams and other cybercrimes.

The most recent scam noted is on WhatsApp, where recipients are prompted to follow up on their trading accounts, or join a WhatsApp group, by calling a name and mobile number provided in the WhatsApp message. Bursa Malaysia categorically denies issuing this communication.

As in previous occasions, these scammers misuse the Bursa Malaysia name and logo, as well as misrepresent themselves as employees of the exchange operator. Other scams include using names and photographs of Bursa Malaysia’s top management to entice members of the public to invest in unauthorised schemes.

Bursa Malaysia said in a statement today it would also like to remind the public to only invest with licensed professionals. Whenever in doubt, visit the Bursa Academy website for a list of licensed intermediaries and representatives.

The #StayAlert initiative is part of Bursa Malaysia’s ongoing service to educate the public against investment scams, which includes the on-going Sens-Ability financial management programme. In relation to this, the exchange has released a series of online posts about different types of scams misrepresenting Bursa Malaysia, which include social media scams, Telegram groups, as well as the use of forged letterheads and logos.

Members of the public may view these awareness postings on the Bursa Academy website.

To gain the right investment knowledge and tools in order to make informed decisions and identify fraudulent activities, members of the public are invited to visit Bursa Malaysia’s website www.bursamalaysia.com and the official microsites and social media channels.

Members of the public can email [email protected] or call 03-2732 0067 to authenticate the content of any communication.