He said 4,051 phishing websites have been taken down since 2020, and 581 million unsolicited SMS messages have been blocked since 2021.

In addition, 238,000 lines affiliated with suspicious SMS messages have been terminated since 2021.

“This is just a small fraction of the problem. The reality is that the problem is probably seven times greater than this because most people don’t report. This is the extent of the challenge,” he said at a media briefing on the launch of #JanganKenaScam, a national scam awareness campaign, here today.

Fernandez said MCMC has the power to carry instructions to block or remove spam and to block sites suspected of being used for scams or to commit a criminal act.

He said it also plays a role in facilitating other government agencies, such as the police, after receiving a request.

“A total of 29 websites have been blocked based on the request from the police, while 7,754 accounts have been flagged for the attention of the service provider due to impersonation or fake accounts used for fraudulent purposes,” he said.

Furthermore, he said, 17 million peer-to-peer SMS messages containing hyperlinks have been prevented from reaching their intended recipients since May 12.