PUTRAJAYA: The government will meet with Meta’s WhatsApp representative to discuss the rising number of account hijackings on the messaging platform, says Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Fahmi said the meeting was expected to be held next week in an effort to understand what led to the hijackings.
“We will meet with Meta to delve into security aspects which can be exploited by cybercriminals,” he told reporters after the launch of the 2023 National Anti-Scam Campaign closing ceremony here on Thursday (Dec 7).
“This is a worrying trend as we have seen similar incidents on Telegram where criminals took over users’ accounts and now it is happening on Whatsapp.
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“I have personally received complaints about accounts being ‘stolen’ by irresponsible parties.
“This is important as anyone who uses WhatsApp has a vast number of groups so if you have received any kind of link do not simply click on it,” he added.
Fahmi also said his deputy Teo Nie Ching had met with Meta’s Facebook representatives regarding scam cases on the social platform.
Earlier on Thursday, CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) had issued a warning regarding scammers exploiting WhatsApp for impersonation purposes and deceiving victims into transferring money.
CSM said perpetrators would impersonate a user and share links to other potential victims in their contact list.
Once the victim clicked on the link shared by the “user”, they would lose access to their WhatsApp account.
