KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — The Social Security Organisation (Socso) has received complaints on scammers impersonating as its Employment Services Officers targeting unsuspecting victims.
Its chief executive, Datuk Seri Mohammed Azman Aziz Mohammed said the activities have undermined Socso’s efforts in carrying out its Active Labour Market Programmes to assist insured persons and Malaysians who lost their jobs due to Covid-19 crisis.
“In carrying out various activities to promote the Employment Insurance System (EIS) services such as job vacancies, Socso discloses the names and phone numbers of our Employment Services Officers to facilitate the public in contacting and obtaining further information related to these services.
“However, the dissemination of information on Socso’s services via social media has attracted scammers to disguise as our Employment Services Officers to commit fraud against the public,” he said in a statement today.
Following this, a police report on a scam was lodged yesterday at 10.03am at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.
One of the Socso officers, Khairul ‘Ammar Hashim made the police report as his profile and phone number were being used by scammer/s to deceive a few of his colleagues.
“The scammer has contacted some of Khairul ‘Ammar’s colleagues and requested a sum of money to be transferred to a Maybank account under the name of Muhd Nur Azami Manila.
“One of his colleagues was tricked into transferring RM500 to the account holder, after being requested by the imposter for the reason that he was unable to access online banking,” Mohammed Azman said.
In light of this development, Socso’s officers, insured persons, employers and the public are advised to be vigilant of tactics used by scammers so that they will not be deceived by the increasingly widespread fraudulent activities.
The public is also advised to check with Socso or report to it if there is any party who requests for payment for Socso’s services.
“I would like to reiterate that all benefits and services provided by Socso to its insured persons are free of charge and we do not engage middlemen in delivering our benefits and services,” said Mohammed Azman. — Bernama
