Kuala lumpur: Fraud syndicates in Malaysia are exploiting social media and artificial intelligence (AI) to deploy sophisticated scams that blend child sexual exploitation, extortion, and illegal content sales, with teenagers as their primary victims.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Malaysian Cyber Consumers Association (MCCA) president Siraj Jalil said scam tactics have drastically evolved over the past decade, transitioning from traditional Macau, romance, and parcel scams to complex, multi-layered cybercrimes. He highlighted a scam involving 'sugar mummy' service offers on TikTok that lure teenagers into sharing personal content classified as Child Sexual Exploitation Material (C-SET). Victims are then extorted for thousands of ringgit to avoid having this material exposed publicly.

Siraj explained that even after ransom payments, syndicates continue to profit by selling the compromising material on platforms like Telegram to paedophile communities. He also warned that social media merchants are facing new risks of being falsely accused as scammers duplicate their ads, deceive buyers, and exploit buyer information to defraud genuine sellers. When victims report fraud, the legitimate merchants' accounts may be frozen under suspicion.

Further, Siraj noted that modern scams are increasingly using AI-generated fake content, leaked data from major tech companies like Meta, and social engineering techniques to study victim behavior. To address these threats, the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) now operates 24/7 with an expanded cybercrime mandate.

He urged parents to closely monitor their children's online activity and called on the government to provide AI literacy education for the public. Cybercrime victims can seek help via MCCA's website at cyberconsumer.my.