Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil has ordered telecommunications companies (telcos) to explain claims that multiple phone lines were registered under individual identities and could subsequently be misused for online scams, Bernama reported.
Fahmi said the ministry would summon the telcos involved, with their chief executive officers required to provide a full explanation by the end of Thursday.
“If this is true, then the telcos concerned will have some explaining to do. I will call them in and ask them to meet me and provide a full explanation.
“I want the CEOs of the telcos concerned to provide an explanation by the end of today,” he said when launching the 2026 National Anti-Scam Awareness Programme in Petaling Jaya.
The issue was raised earlier by Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) chief activist Datuk Nadzim Johan, who claimed some telcos allowed between 20 and 50 telephone lines to be registered under a single name.
Nadzim said PPIM had received a case involving a 70-year-old man who discovered that 18 lines had been registered under his name despite having only one telephone line. Another case allegedly involved as many as 400 lines being registered using a single identity.
“If a telco allows 20 or 50 lines to be registered under one name without any problem, this cannot be allowed to continue because ultimately, it is the consumers who bear the consequences,” he said.
Fahmi said the government had introduced measures including MyDigital ID verification for prepaid line registrations, particularly following cases where registered numbers were later misused for illicit activities.
