The government is considering making phone number verification mandatory for WhatsApp accounts, as part of efforts to curb scam calls and the impersonation of government officials, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on Sunday (Nov 15).
Fahmi said his ministry was studying whether such a requirement was feasible, as the messaging platform does not currently require the numbers linked to its accounts to be verified beyond the existing registration step.
He said several countries had raised concerns about the platform being exploited for scam calls at a recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) meeting, and that many of them verify the identity and phone number linked to a WhatsApp account.
Technical measures introduced earlier by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to curb caller ID spoofing had succeeded in blocking spoofed calls, he said, but scammers had since switched to other methods, so further steps were needed. Several matters were being studied at the network level, he told reporters after attending the launch of a pilot project for a safety system for senior citizens.
Fahmi was responding to questions about the arrest of 61 people suspected of belonging to three scam syndicates in raids in Seri Kembangan, Selangor. One syndicate allegedly impersonated MCMC officers in phone scams, while the other two allegedly offered fake part-time jobs to victims in Indonesia through WhatsApp. He said anyone found to have broken the law would be brought to court.
He reminded the public that neither the ministry nor the MCMC calls people to order them to shut down their phone lines, which is a matter for telecommunications companies. Anyone who receives such a call should hang up and report it to the police or the MCMC, while scam victims should contact the National Scam Response Centre immediately, he said.
Earlier this week, police in Sarawak said they had crippled seven online scam syndicates and arrested 42 people.