An Analysis of Communication Initiatives to Combat Mule Account Problems in Malaysia
Abstract
Money muling is a fraud and occurs when a person receives money from a third party in their bank account and then transfers it to someone else in return of obtaining a commission. Whether voluntary or fall prey to these scams, housewives, students, college students, self-employed, retirees and unemployed individuals have all been associated with mule account activities. Therefore, communication by regulatory bodies such as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) is crucial to enhance awareness and educate society on mule accounts and anti-fraud prevention measures. The importance of social media in addressing the mule account issue is undeniable. This paper assessed the effectiveness of existing awareness and communication initiatives undertaken by BNM. A total of 201 individuals participated in this survey. Findings showed that majority of those involved in money mule activities are Malay males from the Klang Valley, aged in their 30’s with low education level and low to middle income level. Television, Facebook, and BNM’s website appear the top three sources of information on mule accounts respondents received from BNM. Overall, the awareness level is still low, and the existing awareness and communication initiatives are not fully effective. This study also recommends BNM to enhance the communication initiatives using social media, TV, radio, YouTube, and phone messages. In addition, BNM should target public places such as government agencies, shopping malls, public transportation stations and hospitals. The content should also be appropriate to the relevant demographics, especially those with high risk of involvement in money mule activities.
Keywords: BNM, Communication Initiatives, İnternet Fraud, Mule Account, Social Media
Introduction
With the massive growth in the information and communication technologies, there has been a boom in the mule scam account, particularly related to internet fraud. Many commercial banks suffered due to various types of scams. For instance, the "phishing attack" in which the 'phishers' forge web pages used by customers for online banking, hence, enable the customers to confidently share their personal financial information (usernames, passwords etc.). This would result in the information to be abused for unlawful and unauthorised transactions (Sisak, 2013). Money muling occurs when a person receives money from a third party in their bank account and then transfers it to some other person in form of cash or any other kind after obtaining his commission (Raza et al., 2020). Even if a money mule is not directly involved in the crimes that generate the money (for instance in the forms of cybercrime, payment and online fraud, drugs, human trafficking, etc.), the person is still considered an accomplice, because of money laundering that proceeds such crimes. According to the EUROPOL-Public Awareness and Prevention Guides (2019), money muling activities indirectly keep criminal syndicates to remain anonymous while moving funds around the world.
Usually, internet money mule’s fraud is quite easy to identify, and the funds that may have been kept as the "commission” fees are generally recovered (Aston et al., 2009). Unfortunately, once the fraud is committed, it does not matter whether the ‘mule’ is aware of it or innocent. While on the part of the criminals, if the mules do not pose a threat to their enterprise, they will continue business as usual. Among victims of this kind includes from all walks of life, such as college students, housewives, self-employed workers, retirees and those who are unemployed (Hashim & Abdul Rahman, 2020). Hence, communication is very critical to enhance the awareness and educate the society on the mule account. For instance, banks play an important role to instil a shared understanding of values between itself and its customers. Asif and Sargeant (2000) suggested that banks should come up with effective intervention to create awareness and communicate about fraud prevention and anti-fraud measures. This suggestion was also supported by Rauyruen and Miller (2007) stating that this kind of intervention would make customers feel safe.
Understanding mule account holder’s profile is imperative as it can help the authorities to properly assess and analyse the issue so that they can come up with the most effective measures to curb the growing scam-related problems in the country. According to the PPIM, 25,000 cases of mule accounts have been reported for the past three years (Harian Metro, 2020). Reported cases of internet fraud have escalated over the recent years and this trend is steadily growing once the scammer is able to manipulate the victim’s emotion and interest. For instance, in the year 2019, there were a total of 7,774 reports, preceded by 5,123 reports in 2018, while 3,821 reports were lodged in 2017. In the first quarter of 2020, there have been 2,330 reported incidents of online fraud (http://www.mycert.org.my/). Furthermore, according to Abdul Rahman (2020). The weakest link is the victims themselves, whereby they will allow access to all the confidential information because this scam is a twisted scheme designed to manipulate a person’s weakness. Therefore, mules or victims have the power to stop this if they can avoid being dragged into these scams (Abdul Rahman, 2020).
Furthermore, scam activities are mostly conducted online through social media in line with the rapid development of e-banking services at present. Although conventional initiatives such as posters, brochures and advertisements in mainstream media are important, their influence is degenerating constantly and no longer attractive to post-millennials. Indeed, as commented by Miller et al. (2016, p. 209), “social media are not only becoming indispensable to geographically dispersed populations, but also to a more dispersed age range”. Social media is no longer associated with age factor and internet accessibility is now a basic need during this pandemic COVID-19. The importance of social media in addressing the mule account issue is real, nevertheless, substantive understanding of its implication is still limited. Communication can be referred to as conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, speeches, visuals, signals, writings, or behaviours in which the information is shared between two or more people. BNM has initiated campaigns nationwide for the purpose of communicating to the public on how to avoid being a victim of physical and online scam. Nevertheless, almost every day there will be news on scamming activities, including mules being reported. Therefore, this paper assessed the effectiveness of existing awareness and communication initiatives undertaken by BNM in recent years.
Social Presence and Online Communication
In recent years, social media is considered one of the essential communication mediums. The offer of interactivity is believed to be a crucial factor that influences users’ reactions in social media (Alalwan et al., 2017). Two ways interaction and real-time responses are key elements in modern web 2.0 social media. A 2010 report shows that only 30percent Asian governments were active users of web 2.0 (Kuzma, 2010). As compared to the conventional media, today’s readers are regarded as content generators and information providers to other readers (Hajli, 2014). An important message can be thoroughly discussed and widely shared by the targeted users if they are empowered to enjoy a high level of interaction with the respective authority such as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). Thus, one of the criteria to assess the effectiveness of media campaigns on Mule Account is interactivity.
Social presence is another important factor of effective media campaigns against Mule Account. It is a substantive concept that constructs brand engagement with consumers in advertising context (Fattah & Sujono, 2020). For instance, Bank Negara Malaysia’s Telegram Account has only 2,799 subscribers, as compared to 1.18 million subscribers for Majlis Keselamatan Negara Telegram and 9,981 subscribers for Universiti Utara Malaysia Telegram as of 1st of June 2022. MKN Telegram has a prominent presence in our society during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic because it is the official and publicly recognised source of latest announcements. Although MKN Telegram has limited interactivity except for a few polls conducted in 2020, consumers are actively sharing and forwarding preferred announcements to other popular applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook for further interaction. This has indirectly increased its social presence. Thus, original, authorized, valid, and reliable content offered by a social media will improve its social presence among the population of a country even though its level of interactivity is rather limited.
Social media is constantly evolving in responding to new innovative technologies and new usages (Appel et al., 2020). In the coming future, as suggested by Appel et al. (2020), personalised and integrated customer care service will be fully embedded in social media to facilitate strong connectedness. This is delivered through a specially built phone application. Indeed, this has become a reality. For instance,Application has been introduced and downloaded more than 10 million times since 26th of March 2020. Various important services such as vaccine registration can be completed by users in the application. Hence, functionality of a social media that is reliable and friendly, is another crucial factor of effective media campaigns to combat mule account scam.
Method
This study involved quantitative method using survey questionnaires. Questions on the visibility, usage and effectiveness of existing communication initiatives are also included. The respondents were also asked to recommend effective communication channels Bank Negara Malaysia can adopt to combat money muling activities. The collection period took place from 27 October 2021 to 14 February 2022. Convenience sampling was used, and data collection was conducted online whereby the survey questionnaire link was shared to the respondents mainly through WhatsApp. Data collection was also assisted by BNM through their list of contacts. A total of 201 usable questionnaires were gathered for further analysis. The criterion is measured by adopting three constructs, namely awareness, usage, and usefulness. Respondents’ feedback on the three constructs will reflect the social presence of all official communication platforms provided by Bank Negara Malaysia. Examples of items are listed in Table 1.
Results
The findings of this research are presented in three parts namely, the demographic profiles; the awareness of the communication initiatives; and the effectiveness of the communication initiatives. A total of 201 participants responded to the survey. Table 2 below, demonstrated the profile of the 201 respondents.
Slightly more females (54%) than males (46%) participated in the online survey. Fifty-eight per cent of the respondents were 35 years old and below. Most of the respondents (78%) are Malays, and more than half (52.8%) of the respondents had diploma or SPM qualification. Fifty-four per cent of the respondents were self-employed and work in the private sector. Approximately 50 percent of the respondents were from the Klang Valley. Many of the respondents (67%) earned RM4000 or less per month and 68 percent had heard of mule account issues.
Next, to establish Mule from Non-mule, additional criteria were introduced. Two criteria were used to classify 'Mule' respondents from the overall 201 respondents. The criteria are as follows:
Those who answered, 'For Reward' () as the
Motive of performing any of the four activities.
Those who answered, 'For Loan Purposes' () as the motive of
Giving ATM card and PIN to others.
As a result, 89 out of the 201 respondents were classified as 'Mule Account Holders'.
Table 3 shows that among the 89 mule respondents, males are more than females (56% vs 44%). The proportion of single and married respondents is about the same. Approximately 85 percent of the respondents are below 45 years old, of which, nearly 50 percent are below 35 years old. About 24percent have a degree and nearly 40 percent have SPM or below. The mule respondents are predominantly Malays and with significant representatives from Indian. Majority are middle to low-income (73percent < RM4,000) and working in Private/self-employed. They are from 11 different states, with almost half from the Klang Valley.
Awareness of communication initiative
Awareness on communication initiative was analysed based on the 201 responses received in the online survey. The analyses include their sources of reference in knowing mule account issues, their preferable channels according to their personal background, and the differences between mule and non-mule respondents.
Majority (67.7%) of the 201 respondents who completed the online survey admitted that they had heard of mule account issues (Table 4). Conversely, 12.9 percent were not sure whether they had received any information on a mule account. While almost 20 percent never heard about mules.
From Table 5, Television remains the most popular channel to receive information from Bank Negara Malaysia. This is in line with a statement by Bank Negara Malaysia on the usage of TV as a channel in combating mule account activities (Shah, February 21, 2022). The top three channels for respondents to receive information from Bank Negara Malaysia are TV (62.3%), Facebook (32.1%), and Website (25.5%).
Effectiveness of the Communication Initiatives
Website, Telelink, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter are six official communication initiatives adopted by Bank Negara Malaysia to disseminate and educate the public on issues related to mule accounts. The following are respondents’ awareness, usage patterns, and views on the initiatives.
Majority respondents (71.6%) were aware of the website (Table 6). However, only 7.5 percent always log on to the website. Approximately 63 percent believed that the website is useful.
Majority of respondents (71.6% to 73.1%) were not aware and never used the telelink provided by Bank Negara Malaysia (Table 7). Less than 40 percent of the respondents considered Telelink useful.
Slightly more than half of the respondents (54.2%) were aware of the Bank Negara Malaysia Facebook (Table 8). However, only 10 percent were actively logging on to the Facebook page. Yet, almost 54 percent of them regarded Facebook as useful.
Majority of respondents (79.6% and 78.6%) were not aware and had never engaged with the Bank Negara Malaysia’s Telegram (Table 9). Only 31.8 percent considered Telegram was useful.
Like the Telegram, most respondents (76.6% and 73.1%) were not aware and had never engaged with the Bank Negara Malaysia’s Instagram (Table 10). Only 34.8 percent of them considered Instagram to be useful.
Table 11 describes that approximately 80 percent respondents were unaware of the Bank Negara Malaysia’s Twitter and 78.1percent had never read the Twitter. Only 32.8 percent believed in the usefulness of Twitter.
Table 12 depicts more than half of the respondents are aware of the presence of Bank Negara Malaysia’s Website (71.6%) and Facebook (54.2%). However more than 70 percent of the respondents did not know about the presence of Hotline, Instagram, Telegram and Twitters managed by Bank Negara Malaysia.
Table 13 shows that usage of the six (6) initiatives were relatively low among the respondents. Only about 10 percent and 7.5percent of respondents frequently visited the Facebook and Website of Bank Negara Malaysia respectively.
In Table 14, more than half of the 201 respondents perceived the Website (62.6%) and Facebook (53.7%) of Bank Negara Malaysia was useful. Conversely, Hotline, Instagram, Twitter, and Telegram were perceived as not useful by most of the respondents.
Discussion and Conclusion
The findings show that the majority of those involved in money mule activities are Malay male in their 30’s with low education level, low to middle income level and live in Klang Valley. Overall, the awareness level of money mules is low, and the existing awareness and communication initiatives are not fully effective and can be refined further. Many still do not know what money muling exactly is and some of them are under the impression that it is a legitimate activity. We recommend BNM to enhance the communication initiatives using social media, TV, radio, YouTube, and phone messages. In addition, BNM should also target public places such as government agencies, shopping malls, public transportation stations and hospitals. The content should be appropriate to the relevant demographics, especially those with high probability of involving in money mule activities. BNM should also cooperate with other relevant agencies like PDRM and NGOs to develop an integrated database on money mule cases to come up with better analysis and more effective mitigating or intervening actions.
Acknowledgments
Bank Negara Malaysia awarded this research under the Industry research grant (SO Code: 21005). We thank our research participants and their respective organisations. We would also like to thank RIMC UUM and Universiti Utara Malaysia for their continuous support in completing this research.
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Othman, F. M., Chong, C. C., & Hasnan, N. (2023). An Analysis of Communication Initiatives to Combat Mule Account Problems in Malaysia. In N. M. Suki, A. R. Mazlan, R. Azmi, N. A. Abdul Rahman, Z. Adnan, N. Hanafi, & R. Truell (Eds.), Strengthening Governance, Enhancing Integrity and Navigating Communication for Future Resilient Growth, vol 132. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 274-286). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2023.11.02.21