How GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in insurance fraud - GCG Asia

Got Scammed Lately? Global ComTech Gossip (GCG Asia) Experts Advise on How to Protect Yourself from Financial Scams

Fintech businesses in Asia are booming but not without several weaknesses in the development of the field. One of these is scams. As GCG Asia believes in growing the fintech field in Malaysia, Singapore as well as the region, education on scam protection is vital to its mission so that entrepreneurs and business do not fall prey. Subsequently, there is a basic requirement for organizations in the fintech field to guarantee that they have sound and exhaustive misrepresentation avoidance plans and strategies set up to tackle the problem of fraud.

Fintech is reaching new areas ranging from banking and financial industries all the way to credit unions. As the field is advancing rapidly in the current environment, online businesses in e-commerce are expanding rapidly too, offering ever-more prominent open doors for fraud. Our experts in GCG Asia Malaysia will help you alleviate the problem of getting scammed drawing on our teams in our offices based in Singapore and Cambodia as well.

According to GCG Asia founder and CEO Dr Eddy Teow, “Fintech is in every home and every home should be protected from scams. Although technology is moving fast, some organizations are left behind technologically, for instance, SMEs (Small to Medium-sized Enterprises) are more vulnerable to fraud if they are not equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to avoid scams.”

GCG Asia founder and CEO Dr Eddy Teow also pointed out the importance of data protection, “I believe that big companies that do not invest in data protection, they might find themselves getting scammed if not equipped with the correct tools,” he said. For example, a fintech company in Malaysia was scammed by hackers who stole their data because they did not have adequate data protection measures. The upside of the current advancement in technology has catalyzed data protection and fraud prevention which can be useful to the company by utilizing tech to its advantage.

Unfortunately, there are many individuals paying attention to an industry that is at the forefront of innovative advancement in fraud where they see opportunities to misuse gaps in information security. GCG Asia Singapore expert fintech analyst Maggie Choo revealed that the most common scam in Malaysia is the misappropriation of another person’s identity in other words identity theft. “Although identity theft has been occurring for years, the concept of phishing is relatively new, in which the scammers set up digital platforms (such as emails, websites, SMS texts) to trick people into submitting their information to the scammers,” she said.

GCG Asia is trying to assist organizations in Malaysia and Singapore and around the region to solve these problems. For instance, a few organizations use AI to forestall identity theft, opening new client accounts, and approving clients, in addition to other things. Different administrations permit organizations from various ventures to share positive and negative data about gadgets so vendors can decide if a gadget has been recently connected to fraud. Essentially, for GCG Asia, the organization uses information from various sources to gather and share data on billions of individuals, permitting web-based businesses to confirm new clients, therefore lessening the danger of scam purchases in Asia.

A very important tool that helps detect fraud is machine-based fraud detectors such as GCG Asia’s upcoming Scam Finder. While machine learning is being used by major corporations around the world, fraud is being detected by algorithms connecting large quantities of data and generating solutions that can detect the scam account to deceitful practices. In this way Scam Finder helps save time with relatively high accuracy. Says GCG Asia CEO Dr Eddy Teow, “We are confident that GCG Asia’s Scam Finder is likely to take over the market in the near future. Our Scam Finder product will fill the gap in anti-fraud solutions we see out there.”

Furthermore, major corporations are already using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist in fraud detection. Financial institutions such as Visa, Mastercard, Deloitte, Ernst & Young use Artificial Intelligence to track transactions by the device name, transaction size, location, time, by studying these variables algorithms to detect the likelihood of scam activity.

On the other hand, fraud can be avoided beforehand. By identifying a number of the types of fraud, you can arm yourself and your organisation with the knowledge to eliminate scams before they happen.

Types of fraud and how GCG Asia can help you find a scam before falling into the trap

1. Loan application fraud

How GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in loan applications - GCG AsiaHow GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in loan applications
Photo credits – Taken from fraud.net

Loan application fraud occurs when a scammer provides false data for a loan application. Although it can be detected most of the time by banks, it still occurs frequently. Loan fraud also applies to houses, cars, and business start-ups. According to GCG Asia Singapore Analyst Zhang Lim, loan fraud can be prevented using several methods such as looking for several applications under one name, lack of address and physical location, asking for backend information on start-ups where usually fraudsters do not dive too deep into a subject, asking for references and following up with those references, and finally asking for financial documents (bank statements, audits, fiscal analysis, yearly earning and spending). GCG Asia Scam Finder will guarantee diminishing loan application fraud by detecting algorithms. Therefore, by applying these methods, the possibility of fraud minimizes as more information is being presented when diving deeper into a subject and acquiring information.

2. Insurance fraudHow GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in insurance fraud - GCG Asia

How GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in insurance fraud
Photo credits – Taken from www.irishexaminer.com

Insurance fraud varies from health insurance to car insurance. It usually occurs when the insured person seeks compensation on a fake instance or exaggerates to exploit the policies of the insurance company. It can happen by faking accidents, burning cars or houses to claim the insurance. Insurance fraud can also be abused by the seller of the insurance, for instance, by not paying claims by diversion of premiums and working under fake licences to attract vulnerable parties and take their money.

Here are some methods to avoid insurance fraud: setting up a clear structure for employees to detect the problem by using third party data (police, employment) and criminal history. Another method could be reviewing the insurance claim by recognition, identification, and investigation of the subject at hand. Please visit the GCG Asia Malaysia & Singapore website for more information.

3. Debt collection scams

How GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in debt collection scams - GCG AsiaHow GCG Asia Scam Finder can help find fraud in debt collection scams
Photo credits – Taken from www.consumerfinance.gov

Debt collection scams are the most popular type of scam. You may have already received scam calls or texts asking you to pay right away or you will be faced with jail or legal issues, while sometimes it may seem real because they might enquire about the real debt you owe. One way to detect the scam is if the caller is asking for money right away, by pressuring the individual to pay their debt to the scammer. GCG Asia Scam Finder suggests some ways of detecting scammers on the phone are if they ask for information that they already have and if that information is given it can be used for further ways to commit fraud. Another way to detect the scam is by asking the caller for further information on the company they are posing as. They might negotiate the debt overall value and ask for it to be wired directly. As confirmed by GCG Asia founder and CEO Dr Eddy Teow, “Legitimate debt collectors will never negotiate the fixed debt value on the phone or e-mail.”

Fraud and scams occur every single day to companies, organisations as well as the common person on the street. Fintech can assist to solve this problem. With the current technological developments, it has become a cost-effective and easy way for scam detector solutions such as GCG Asia’s Scam Finder. Using the GCG Asia Scam Finder product is a logical and practical way of detecting scams around Malaysia and Singapore. It’s a robust cutting edge solution using Artificial Intelligence and big data to ensure fraud in its many guises are diminished by a huge degree.

Organisations such as GCG Asia are helping customers by developing algorithms to find ways to prevent fraud and therefore increase profits and conserve costs. In the US alone the fintech industry attracted more than USD$18 billion in venture capital funds. Regardless of the huge development, we’ve seen in fintech, there is as yet a mind-boggling opportunity ahead for fintech firms, all things considered.

As fintech has expanded to include areas such as crowdfunding, stock trading, insurance, mobile applications, virtual wallets, cryptocurrency and much more scams can occur more frequently to exploit these financial technological services. GCG Asia’s Scam Finder detects scams by training machine learning and artificial intelligence in helping companies to improve their fraud protection. GCG Asia is helping companies finding scams and by providing the latest news in anti-scam solutions specifically in Malaysia and Singapore while also keeping the customers in mind to help improve and adapt to the evolving ways of fraud detection.

The Top 10 e-wallets in Malaysia According to GCG Asia's Experts - GCG Asia website

The Top 10 E-Wallets in Malaysia According to GCG Asia’s Experts

The number of digital consumers in South East Asia are set to rise as the global pandemic accelerates adoption of online services. According to a GCG Asia analyst report, around 70 percent of South East Asian consumers will go digital with a total of 310 million expected by 2025. Moreover, more and more consumers prefer to use e-wallets. This shows the steady rise of e-wallet adoption in the region is a booming sector that is set to upend traditional banking services.

An e-wallet is basically a digital wallet that can be used to make transactions through a computer or smartphone. An e-wallet facilitates online payment transactions that is quickly becoming the payment method of choice around the world. E-wallets use software to store personal information and secures this information by encrypting the data. For an individual to have this type of digital wallet account, they would have to install the particular software required. Once the person has installed the software or the app they are able to access the services and make a transaction as they desire.

According to GCG Asia Malaysia-based experts, Malaysians are way ahead of other countries in Southeast Asia when it comes to using e-wallets. The competition is rife. There are more than 50 e-wallets in the country and options are growing each day occupying roughly 9% of Malaysia’s fintech space. According to GCG Asia analyst report, Malaysian E-wallet providers recently got a boost during the pandemic with the Malaysian government allocating a total of RM750 million to promote the usage of e-wallets which benefits 15 million Malaysian users. With this boost towards safe, a contact-free payment experience and to boost consumer spending, e-wallet usage is set to rise even more.

With the many choices of digital wallets available, GCG Asia takes a look at a few of the most prominent e-wallets in Malaysia to choose from.

1. PAY-PAL

PayPal logo - GCG Asia Website

Paypal is a globally renowned digital wallet that’s no stranger to Malaysians who buy international goods and services. To be able to use this particular service, an individual would have to install the Paypal application and connect their card or cards to the software thus making it easier for them to make payments or carry out a transaction. To complete the set up an individual needs an email account and once paypal verifies that the account owner is authentic and their information matches all the other pieces of information given, the account is set up and the consumer can either use it to buy or sell goods.

A huge advantage of this service is that an individual is able to send money to their close friends and family without requiring their bank account details or lining up at a bank to forward the money. Instead just by the click of a button the service is provided. The only disadvantage of this application software would be that a person would have to own a paypal account in order for them to receive money which would not really be a disadvantage but a form of motivation in order for them to download the application and enjoy the services available to make their lives easier. Not only will you be able to manage your money and see all your transactions but the security set up is top tier and ensures that your funds are safe and guarded.

2. SETEL

Setel logo - GCG Asia Website

Setel has been designed to make it easier and safer for an individual to pay for fuel from the comfort of their own car. According to GCG Asia analysts this is a Malaysian first, an innovative solution offered by Petronas. This is a great technology because it definitely saves time and as we all know time is the most valuable thing we have. Instead of queuing up to pay for fuel, all you need to do is download the application and with the touch of a button your transaction is carried out. Another advantage is that you earn rewards which can help you top up your fuel if you are short on cash depending on how many rewards you have earned or collected and lastly this service is available in most countries across over seven hundred petronas stations.

3. ALI-PAY

Alipay logo - GCG Asia Website

Alipay is one of the most used e-wallets around the world with over 1 billion users . Its main market is obviously in China, whose visitors are able to use it here in Malaysia to pay at many merchants making Alipay an added convenience for Chinese shoppers. This is a good form of e-wallet because not many services based in China are usually available on a global scale hence this being a complete game changer. To top it off it is secure so you do not have to worry about your funds not being safe.

4. MAE WALLET

Maybank MAE logo - GCG Asia Website

Mae is the latest offering from the largest Malaysian bank Maybank. It is a Malaysian banking digital wallet that comes bundled together with services such as a virtual card and budgeting tools. The best thing about this form of online payment is that it is built not only to make transactions easier for individuals but to also encourage them to budget and save. In other words, it does not only make your life easier but also encourages you to improve your life through saving.

5. BOOST

Boost logo - GCG Asia Website

Boost is a Malaysian e-wallet with over 7 million users who use it for everything from shopping online to getting the bill at a restaurant to buying groceries. The wallet also offers other functionalities such as online payments, to contribute to other causes in the community, to pay for parking and many more. Rewards are given for every point earned enabling one to enjoy the many perks of promotions.

6. WISE

Wise logo - GCG Asia Website

This is another great application that facilitates global money transfers with low fees. GCG Asia experts explain that though designed for travellers and expats in Malaysia, the service allows anyone to send money from Malaysia to over 70 countries using real exchange rates and transparent fees. This London-based payments provider launched its service in Malaysia in 2019 and is open to all foreigners and locals.

7. TOUCH N GO

Touch and Go logo - GCG Asia Website

Touch n Go wallets were originally cards used at Malaysian toll gates however it is now available as a digital wallet. An individual is able to monitor how much money they have using the application, use the application as a payment method for a broad range of services as well as get discounts depending on how much you use the app as rewards are earned and promotions given.

8. BIG-PAY

BigPay logo - GCG Asia Website

This form of digital wallet by low-cost carrier Air Asia has been a great breakthrough because it is able to give its services not only online but also in a physical form through a debit and card . It has been especially created with its own card which makes it easier for an individual to use the card in case they are in a location where the form of an e-wallet payment is unavailable, such as during overseas travel.

9. GRAB Pay

GrabPay logo - GCG Asia Website

Grabpay is no stranger to the Malaysian user, being the payments solution attached to the Grab app. To top it off one is able to earn rewards and use these rewards to get discounts not only for rides booked on Grab, but also other forms of transactions such as buying food and for payments at physical stores and merchants. It can also be used for prepaid services and to send money to your family and friends.

10. WE CHAT PAY MY

WeChat logo - GCG Asia Website

WeChat is the Chinese super app that expanded its e-wallet capabilities to Malaysia in 2019. With a link to your Malaysian debit card, your WeChat account allows you to start spending and sending money to your WeChat contacts, no doubt a popular and convenient service for the sizeable 20 million Malaysian WeChat users. According to GCG Asia Malaysia experts, with that huge number of users, it is no surprise that Tencent selected Malaysia as the first country outside of China to expand WeChat Pay’s services.

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GCG Asia Scam Finder Developers Shed Some Light on Their Upcoming New Product via An Online Pre-Launch Event Organized by GCG Asia Malaysia and GCG Asia Singapore

Back in 2018, the concept behind Scam Finder was introduced by a team of independent developers in Malaysia and Singapore. The concept was pretty straightforward: a computer algorithm designed to detect false financial investment websites that are heavily present online. These websites advertise heavily through a large number of false marketing campaigns led by professional scammers hiding behind false promises of financial gains and investment returns.

GCG Asia Scam Finder’s aim is to combat such unethical behaviour by protecting average consumers, as well as fintech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs from falling prey to such scams and fraudulent behaviours. This allows for a safer browsing experience for a large number of internet users in Asia and around the world.

Scam Finder is now a concept slowly coming to life. Hence, a timely pre-launch event was organized by GCG Asia Malaysia and Singapore to provide us with better insights into Scam Finder’s potential and influence on online safe browsing. The event was held online through a zoom session in which participants were invited through email. The participants of the event consisted of GCG Asia contributors, Scam Finder investors as well as Scam Finder’s development team. Most importantly, in attendance was Dr. Lee Ong, head of development for GCG Asia Scam Finder and Dr. Eddy Teow, CEO of GCG Asia: Global ComTech Gossip.

GCG Asia Scam Finder Speech by Dr. Eddy Teow, CEO of GCG Asia Global ComTech Gossip

The event began with a speech from Dr. Eddy Teow, in which he stressed the importance of combating financial fraud and pledged his full support to GCG Asia Scam Finder. Dr. Eddy Teow expressed his confidence in the project, and said he was hopeful that the product would be launching very soon as he felt that such a powerful tool should have existed a long time ago. “I strongly believe in Scam Finder’s ability to ensure safe browsing for all internet users to protect themselves from internet scammers who are toxic to our passionate fintech community,” he expressed during his opening speech. He went on to add: “My hope is to eliminate all chances for scammers to commit fraudulent behaviour on the internet or at the very least, to limit their toxic activities.” Dr. Eddy Teow openly admitted that he had once been a victim of such online scams early in his career while in Cambodia, and expressed his willingness to help fund the project further if necessary.

After his speech, a few members of the development team shared some interesting insights on how the concept of GCG Asia Scam Finder was developed. It all started with a group of entrepreneurs with backgrounds in software development in Singapore. One of the members of the development team was informed by his friend that he had been a victim of an online investment firm. This incident prompted the developer to bring this topic to Dr. Lee Ong, who at the time was a freelance Computational Algorithm Engineer and university professor. Dr. Ong took a strong interest in this incident and managed to gather his entrepreneur friends and a few experts in software engineering to conduct more research into online fraudulent financial websites.

GCG Asia Scam Finder team in Singapore office

The team in Singapore would eventually realize that scam websites contain a familiar pattern and rely heavily on keywords and search engine optimization which could be traced back to online social media bots created for the purpose of ranking themselves on google. They had also noticed that such websites were not legally registered or licensed to operate under any financial governing organization or legal framework. The team then realized how simple it would be if some sort of software can be developed to verify such behaviour and red flag such websites based on computational background checks operated solely by a precisely written algorithm.

After realizing this opportunity, the team grew to include a large number of software engineers, SEO experts, algorithm experts and web developers from Malaysia and Singapore. The concept was in its early stages however, as development was stalled due to limited resources and funding. It was then that Dr. Lee Ong brought the idea to a number of potentially interested parties, one of whom was GCG Asia founder Dr. Eddy Teow who immediately realized Scam Finder’s potential and agreed to fund it.

The icing on the cake is its dynamic algorithms, which simply means that the computational logical method of doing background checks is able to grow and learn by itself without any sort of human intervention. This is why deep learning technology was embedded into this algorithm for the hope of improving the basic functions of the algorithm and to combat any sort of attempts by scammers to combat the algorithm.

Dr. Koay Chee Ming of GCG Asia Singapore, one of the developers tasked with developing the deep learning algorithm, stated the following: “Deep learning is inspired by the structure and functionality of such algorithms. Deep learning is basically large neural networks that form a brain that functions on its own and most importantly learns from its mistakes. This technology is quite recent and is currently being used in the IT industry today as it is somewhat the future of Artificial Intelligence.” Dr. Koay seemed confident in the algorithm’s self-learning capabilities and is hopeful that such capabilities will drastically improve the functionality of Scam Finder.

GCG Asia Scam Finder Artificial Intelligence prototype - GCG Asia Malaysia and Singapore

Self-learning capabilities are considered to be the only way for Artificial Intelligence to improve and become less dependent on human intervention. The technology is currently being used in many indie projects and is also used by major corporations, most notably Tesla with its smart self-driving vehicles that are purely based on its self-learning software.

During the event, a question was raised by one of the participants on whether Scam Finder would organize its own marketing materials to promote GCG Asia Scam Finder. The developers asserted that such actions would be taken not only to promote Scam Finder but to give assurance to all that the product is being developed for the sole purpose of combating financial fraud and that it would make no attempt to market it falsely. The developers had also expressed the potential of starting a marketing campaign against online financial frauds on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook in order to raise awareness on the importance of safe browsing and combatting scammers.

Perhaps the most important question for GCG Asia Scam Finder team: when will Scam Finder actually launch? “Well, the only answer we have for now is very soon,” Dr Ong said. They mentioned that their concern was of launching Scam Finder too early without adequate trial runs, as is necessary to ensure that the algorithm is running properly with no bugs. However, the development team revealed that the results of the early trials are very promising. They are confident that the trial runs will be successful in order to launch the product very soon.

The event ended with a closing speech from Dr. Lee Ong, where he expressed his great appreciation to everyone who had supported the concept. He had also expressed his gratitude to the development team in which he mentioned how hard they have been working on this project especially during the pandemic when development paused for a while. Dr. Lee Ong said “I am extremely grateful and proud of the team at GCG Asia Scam Finder who worked tirelessly to deliver deadlines and develop a product that would benefit internet users for the long term.”

Dr. Eddy Teow, CEO of GCG Asia, concluded the event by reiterating his personal excitement about the potential of this new product. “I can’t wait to unveil this product. I anticipate that this will be well received by the public and I firmly believe that this ties into our larger goal of delivering products that serve a greater purpose. I see this as a form of public service as this will really help people to protect themselves, their organisations and their companies from scammers and fraudsters,” he said.

GCG Asia Scam Finder is a tool that could greatly enhance safe browsing and protect people’s finances from scammers. By modelling itself as a guardian for all internet users, many aspects of GCG Asia Scam Finder are exciting, such as its ability to self learn and become more efficient as it continues to operate which would allow it to combat all attempts for scammers to bypass safety nets. It’s definitely a promising tool for the future of safe browsing.

The team at Global ComTech Gossip as well as GCG Asia founder Dr. Eddy Teow are hopeful that Scam Finder will become a successful product and change the way in which we surf the internet. We will continue coverage of GCG Asia Scam Finder latest news to ensure that you are up to date with the latest development of GCG Asia Scam Finder.