KUCHING: Cases involving identity theft are getting quite prevalent and recently, a hawker here was the unfortunate victim.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Public Complaints Bureau chief Wilfred Yap revealed that he recently accompanied a woman surnamed Chan to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) after her name had been fraudulently used as a company director.
Yap said the victim was a fast food seller who said she was scared after she received a letter from the CCM alleging that she had failed in her capacity as company director to file in the annual statement of accounts of a company.
The woman said she never owned shares in any company and that she was never appointed as a director of any company. She also informed that she was not a shareholder of any company and had never signed any document agreeing to be a director of any company. She had subsequently lodged a police report on her identity theft.
Yap assured that he would assist the woman through her predicament and wanted the culprits of such identity theft to be charged under the relevant laws.
Meanwhile, the Public Complaints Bureau has issued a list of the do’s and don’ts in order to protect and prevent one’s identity from being stolen. These are:
1. Share minimal personal information on social media;
2. Do not give personal information and photocopy of identity card when dealing with an unfamiliar party;
3. Do not click on any link in suspicious e-mail, messages or website;
4. Set social media account to private mode and only add people you know;
5. Do not key in your username or password from links in e-mail; and
6. Do not be greedy and stop communicating when a deal is too good to be true.
