Malaysia launches Chatbot to combat fake news

 

CYBERJAYA: WhatsApp users in the country can now play an active role in stopping the spread of fake news by using the new chatbot “Aifa” to verify text messages before forwarding them to others, says Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

He said the chatbot known as Aifa (Artificial Intelligence Fact-Check Assistant) can verify text messages in four languages: English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Tamil.

“This chatbot on WhatsApp enables users to verify the messages they receive before they decide to forward them to others.

“We have among the fastest Internet speeds in South-East Asia, and fake news seems to spread more quickly.

“A few weeks ago, there was news that Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz was leaving Umno to join PKR, which was not true, but it went viral.

“Then, we had the one where Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh was alleged to be the daughter of the founder of YTL Corporation Bhd.

“Another was the fake news of 1.2 million Chinese citizens being in the country,” he said at the launch of Aifa at the Malaysian Multimedia and Communications Commission (MCMC) headquarters here yesterday.

Fahmi said Aifa would be able to verify if such text messages were true.

He added that the MCMC collaborated with strategic partners to develop and provide chatbot services on WhatsApp and the Sebenarnya.my portal.

Taking a spin: a MCMC staff member showing the aifa chatbot replies on Whatsapp.

“The chatbot initiative led by MCMC will serve as a platform to help users verify the accuracy of information spread through the application.

“Aifa would help the public quickly and easily verify and obtain accurate information, accelerate the response to false information online and strengthen the role of Sebenarnya.my in combating the spread of fake news in Malaysia,” he said.

Fahmi said Aifa uses algorithms and machine learning to match information with reliable sources, and then quickly provides users with accurate and verified information.

“Currently, Aifa only accepts input in text format. In the future, it will be capable of accepting input in various formats.

“From 2020 to Jan 27, 2025, a total of 25,114 fake news items have been removed.

“We found that lately, the situation has worsened whereby criminals are widely using fake news and deepfakes.

“The licensing of social media platforms is only a part of government initiatives. The King has agreed to the amendments to the MCMC Act to curb porn, cyberbullying and scams,” said the unity government spokesman.

According to the MCMC, the number of fake news items detected after fact-checking reached nearly 20,000 last year.

“In 2024, the MCMC requested the removal of 19,546 fake news items from various online platforms. Of that number, 17,245 pieces of content were removed after being verified as fake news by all the involved platforms.

“As of Monday, the MCMC has requested the removal of 1,575 fake news items. Of these, 1,233 fake news were removed by the relevant platforms,” said Fahmi.

On another matter, he said social media giant Meta has submitted its documents to secure an Application Service Provider (ASP) Class Licence in Malaysia, while discussions are still ongoing with Google and Microsoft.

“As of Monday, Meta has sent over several documents.

“We will process them – and we expect that within a reasonable timeframe, we will issue a licence to Meta.

“Regarding Google and Microsoft (which manages LinkedIn)... the MCMC is following up on several matters.

“Each party has its perspective, and we need to take action. We will not delay taking the necessary steps for too long,” said Fahmi.Google had previously argued that it is not a social media platform, but the ministry maintains that certain parts of its YouTube platform, such as YouTube Shorts, function like social media, similar to TikTok.

Meanwhile, X – formerly Twitter – had claimed to have fewer than eight million users in Malaysia, which exempts it from the licensing requirement.

As of today, WeChat, TikTok, and Telegram have received their licences.

The newly introduced regulatory requirement aims to tackle rising cybercrime, requiring social media platforms and messaging services with over eight million users in the country to obtain a licence or face legal action.This requirement came into effect on Jan 1.

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Sebenarnya.my Chatbot AIFA Launched To Combat Fake ...

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Experts warn of scams on WhatsApp

 

CyberSecurity M'sia warns of impersonation, scam activities on WhatsApp

CSM said there were fraudulent activities using the application, with the perpetrator posing as someone known to the victim before sending a link and asking the victim to click on it. — AP

KUALA LUMPUR: Beware of scammers exploiting the WhatsApp application for impersonation activities and deceiving victims into transferring money, CyberSecurity Malaysia has warned the public.

It said there were fraudulent activities using the application, with the perpetrator posing as someone known to the victim before sending a link and asking the victim to click on it.

ALSO READ: ahmi: Ministry to ask Meta about rise in WhatsApp scams

The victim will subsequently lose access to their WhatsApp account once it was done.

“The scammer will then take over the hacked WhatsApp account and use the victim’s identity to commit fraud.

“They will impersonate the victim by sending messages to the victim’s contacts via the WhatsApp account,” CyberSecurity Malaysia said in a post on Facebook, Bernama reported.

It said scammers would inform the contacts that the victim is in an emergency and needs financial aid or a loan to help them out of the crisis and promises to make a repayment.

In such a situation, the victim’s contacts will be misled and believe their friend sent the message and end up losing money.“We advise people not to click on any link received via WhatsApp. Do not make any money transfer until you have confirmed and verified with your contacts,” it said.

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In its report titled ‘Spam and Phishing in Q2 2021’, researchers from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky have detailed how scammers used WhatsApp for tricking users into giving up their hard-earned money in the past quarter. — AFP

 

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging platforms on the Earth. It is used by over two billion users across the world to send around 100 billion messages every month.

` Unfortunately, its popularity among users also makes it popular among scammers who are constantly looking for new tricks to dupe innocent netizens. Now, a new report by Kaspersky has shed some light on the tricks that the fraudsters have been using to steal users’ money.

` In its report titled ‘Spam and Phishing in Q2 2021’, researchers from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky have detailed how scammers used WhatsApp for tricking users into giving up their hard-earned money in the past quarter.

` “Victims were asked, for example, to take a short survey about WhatsApp and to send messages to several contacts in order to receive a prize. 

Another traditional scam aims to persuade the user that they are the lucky winner of a tidy sum. Both scenarios end the same way: the scammers promise a large payout, but only after receiving a small commission,” the company wrote in its report.

` Another method used is sending messages through email. “Emails with a link pointing to a fake WhatsApp voice message most likely belong to the same category. 

By following it, the recipient risks not only handing over their personal data to the attackers, but also downloading malware to their computer or phone,” the company added.

` Notably, WhatsApp is just one of the many ways that these fraudsters used to defraud innocent users. Yet another method that they used for tricking people is called parcel scam, which was one of the most common tricks that they used in the past quarter. 

They used invoices from mail companies, including custom duties and shipment costs, to make Internet users pay a small sum to get their packages.

` “When trying to pay for the service, as with compensation fraud, victims were taken to a fake website, where they risked not only losing the amount itself (which could be far higher than specified in the email), but also spilling their bank card details,” the cybersecurity experts wrote in the report.

` Fraudsters also used Friends: The Reunion to defraud Internet users. Kaspersky researchers found fake sites supposedly hosting Friends: The Reunion. 

“Fans who tried to watch or download the long-awaited continuation were redirected to a Columbia Pictures splash screen. After a few seconds, the broadcast stopped, replaced by a request to pay a nominal fee,” the report added. – Hindustan Times, New Delhi/Tribune News Service

`
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MCMC: Beware of scammers trying to take over your WhatsApp account 

 MCMC issued a warning to alert the public to increasing reports of WhatsApp accounts being hijacked

 

 

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Be advised of checking first, not to fall victim to love or parcel scam thru social media

Watch out for WhatsApp scammers

MCMC: Beware of scammers trying to take over your WhatsApp account 

 MCMC issued a warning to alert the public to increasing reports of WhatsApp accounts being hijacked

MCMC said scammers often pose as friends or family members, using accounts that scammers had already successfully hacked into, to try to trick them into revealing their six-digit WhatsApp verification codes. — Bloomberg

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has issued a  statement warning the public to be wary of increasingly inventive tactics employed by scammers trying to hijack a user’s WhatsApp account, due to increasing reports of fraud cases being committed through the app.

MCMC said scammers usually manage to take over victims’ WhatsApp accounts by tricking them into divulging their six-digit verification codes, which users will usually receive when there is an attempt to change the phone number associated to their account.

To do this, scammers have been known to contact potential victims while posing as a hapless individual or business claiming to have mistakenly keyed in the victim’s phone number while trying to complete an online transaction, explaining that as a result the authorisation code for the transaction had been sent to the victim’s phone and imploring them for help retrieving the code.

These appeals could even come from the victim’s family members or friends via accounts that scammers had already hijacked, said MCMC.

This tactic commonly misleads the victim into thinking they would be sending the scammer an unrelated TAC (transaction authorisation code) when in fact they would be handing over the six-digit verification code to the victim’s own WhatsApp account.

Those who have been duped into giving up their codes could end up having their accounts stolen by scammers, added MCMC.

MCMC said scammers have also impersonated WhatsApp employees to fool users into sharing their verification code, adding that there have also been instances where the scammer would deliberately fail at keying in the code several times in order to force an automated system by WhatsApp to call the user about their verification code.

In this instance, the scammer would also contact the user to ask for the code while pretending to be someone else. If the user did not answer the automated call by WhatsApp and it goes into the user’s voice mailbox, then the scammer would try to randomly guess at or ask for the user’s voice mailbox PIN code to access the recording, according to MCMC.

The regulatory body advised WhatsApp users to be suspicious of any attempts to procure their six-digit verification code, adding that it is absolutely imperative that users never reveal the code to anyone else to prevent their accounts from being hijacked.

It added that users should also enable two-factor verification on WhatsApp and utilise more complicated PIN numbers for their voice mailbox as additional security measures.

According to an  FAQ by WhatsApp, a user may be sent the verification code via SMS – even when one wasn’t requested – for a number of reasons.

WhatsApp said this could happen due to someone mistyping their own number, or a hacker attempting to take over the person’s account.

Without the code, the hacker will not be able to complete the verification process, which would prevent the account from being hijacked.

If your account has been stolen, you will have to sign into WhatsApp with your phone number and verify your phone number by entering the six-digit code you receive via SMS.

Once you enter the six-digit SMS code, the individual using your account will be automatically logged out.

You might also be asked to provide a two-step verification code. If you don’t know this code, the hijacker using your account could have enabled two-step verification.

You must wait seven days before you can sign in without the two-step verification code, according to WhatsApp.

Regardless of whether you know this verification code, the other person will be logged out of your account once you entered the six-digit code received via SMS.

In a separate FAQ about  stolen accounts, WhatsApp also advised the victim to inform family and friends if they suspect someone is impersonating them in chats.

Users whose WhatsApp accounts have been stolen are encouraged to file a complaint with MCMC or lodge a report at the nearest police station.

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WhatsApp Tips: How to clear WhatsApp cache when you are running low on phone memory

WhatsApp Tips: How to clear WhatsApp cache when you are running low on phone memory

HIGHLIGHTS

• Media files received on WhatsApp can occupy a lot of memory on our smartphones.


• Deleting media files from WhatsApp’s memory also erases them from your phone memory.


• However, this trick can be used only on Android smartphones.

WhatsApp is arguably one of the most popular social messaging apps in the world. Every day millions of users exchange messages on WhatsApp in the form of text, videos, voice recordings, GIFs, stickers, location, documents and more. These files often end up taking a lot of space on our smartphones. And if you use the Facebook-owned social messaging app frequently and are actively involved in a number of groups, it can also lead to WhatsApp media files and documents increasingly filling up your phone memory.

This problem can be exacerbated if you are already running low on phone memory. Thankfully, WhatsApp offers you an easy technique using which you can delete media files and messages from not just the app's memory but also from the phone memory. This can help you free a lot of space on your smartphone, particularly, if you are running low on phone memory.

But here is a thing. This trick only works in case of Android smartphones and it won't work if you are using an iPhone. So, while you can free app space and iCloud space, you will have to manually delete the videos and messages from the Photos app of your iPhone, if you want to free your iPhone memory.

If you own an Android phone, here are steps you need to follow to clear WhatsApp media cache:

- Tap on three dots on the top right corner of the app.

- Tap on the Settings option.

- Now tap on Storage Usage option.

- Now you will see all your WhatsApp contacts in the order of the memory that they consume on your smartphone.

- Tap on a contact then tap on Free Up Space option.

- Now you will see a breakdown of files that you have shared with that contact along with the space that the contact is consuming.

- Select the data like images, videos and voice messages that you want to delete.

- Tap on Delete Items option.

- Tap on Clear Messages to confirm.

The videos and messages will automatically be deleted from the gallery.

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