KUALA LUMPUR: Meta Malaysia is developing a high-tech device with security features to prevent users of applications like Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp from becoming victims of online scammers.

Meta Malaysia country director Nicole Tan said the initiative was part of Meta's commitment to assist authorities and enforcement agencies to curb online scams and cybercrime cases that have recorded losses amounting to RM5.2 billion from 2020 to May 2022.

Tan said Meta had invested a substantial amount to develop a technology that can provide a combination of intelligent monitoring and investigative applications that can be widely used manually or automatically installed for the purpose.

She said the technology being developed was to identify and take necessary action against social media accounts used by syndicates that carry out online scams.

"We have a workforce of more than 40,000, carrying out preventive and security initiatives and there are also specific groups trained to focus on activities involving online scams that have increased tremendously," she told Bernama during an exclusive interview, today.

Tan said every social media application would also have functions that enable users to report contents that are not suitable.

"We have also introduced guidelines for users through a web called '#TakNakScam' and the guidelines can be downloaded and used as a reference. If users are not sure of what action to be taken or how to take action on certain matters, they can refer to the guidelines made available," said Tan.

As an added initiative, Meta would be introducing a module in schools throughout the country called 'We Think Digital' to educate and prepare users to identify and avoid online scams.

"So far 1,900 students have learned the module based on avoiding online scams. The module available in Bahasa Melayu and English has been introduced to 200 schools," she said.

Other initiatives undertaken by Meta include programmes to attract, encourage and educate members of the public through immersive participation using the Instagram AR Filters format as well as provide information sharing between users and sellers on social media platforms to create awareness of online scammers.

Speaking of the #TakNakScam 2.0 campaign, Tan said the focus of the campaign would be on five common types of online scams - e-business, illegal financing, job offers, online investment and Foreign Money exchange.

The campaign was first launched in July last year with support from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Securities Commission, Bursa Malaysia, CyberSecurity Malaysia, Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (FOMCA).

"We hope the #TakNakScam 2.0 campaign will promote digital awareness and support our long term objective of ensuring online users in Malaysia are not victimised by online scammers," said Tan.

-- BERNAMA