In submitting a memorandum on the issue to the home ministry, outside the Parliament building, the PKR-backed group said 68% of commercial crimes since May 2020 involved online scams.

These cases saw an estimated loss of RM3.54 billion, which would mean an average of RM4.07 million was lost daily.

PKR central leadership council member Lee Chean Chung said that the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore had given RM44.4 million in goodwill payouts to around 790 scam victims early this year.

He called for an industry code to be implemented for banks to give compensation for transactions made without the account owner’s permission, adding that this was practised in the UK.

“Commercial banks aren’t taking responsibility.

“There have been cases where the bank was supposed to alert the victim about several irregular transactions, but did not do so because it was a public holiday,” he said at a press conference.

Saying Bank Negara Malaysia’s monitoring of commercial banks was too weak, the group urged the central bank to ensure that financial institutions took more responsibility for financial scams.

Lee said BNM should require banks to set up financial fraud aid units to handle these cases.

The Semambu assemblyman, also said the police and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission should discuss reviewing relevant laws according to current needs with the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

He maintained that laws that merely covered “minor offences” should not be used to charge perpetrators, calling for heavier punitive action against culprits.

Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, who received the group outside the Parliament building compound, said his own mother had fallen prey to a scam and lost RM75,000 in savings from Tabung Haji.

“Until today, we don’t know who was responsible,” he said.

The group submitted the memorandum to Ardianza Nasahidin, an officer from the home ministry’s security division.