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Scams are indeed malicious attempts to influence people and can take many forms, including online scams. With the increasing availability of technology, scammers have more tools at their disposal to create convincing and sophisticated communications that appear to come from legitimate sources, such as emails, text messages or social media posts. These scams can be designed to trick individuals into clicking on malicious links, downloading malware or ransomware or providing sensitive information such as login information, financial information or personal details. Scammers often use social engineering techniques to persuade their targets to take specific actions, such as creating a sense of urgency, offering a reward or prize or posing as a trusted authority. These tactics can be highly effective, particularly if the target is unaware of the warning signs of a scam or is unfamiliar with how to protect themselves from online fraud. This paper aims to explore the extent and nature of this problem and evokes the concern that the general public is vulnerable and susceptible to scams if they are not resilient and aware. This paper also explores why victims fall for online scams and uncovers preventive measures to enable a direction in tacitly strategizing ways to create more impactful and effective awareness campaigns.

This study explores these aspects through a holistic qualitative approach. Using in-depth interview techniques with six victims, six non-victims, four law enforcement officers, four scammers and seven stakeholders from various agencies such as banks, telecommunication agencies and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission involved in combating the issue of scams.

The findings generally revealed that participants who were victims of scams felt Malaysians were susceptible to scams, easily fooled and had a nonchalant attitude. Most participants also highlighted that public safety is important for ensuring a high quality of life for citizens that should work closely between the government and non-government agencies, including effective law enforcement and crime prevention strategies.

The uniqueness of this study is the feedback from scammers themselves and their input towards authority and victims. Overall, the respondents provide their views drawing strength from the ever-changing technological background as well as the susceptibility of security features and vulnerability of human engagement.

This study aims to explore the COVID-19 impact on the sustainability of gharimin (genuine debtors) in Islamic financial institutions (IFI) in Malaysia. The analysis was further conducted to expand the interpretation of gharimin in zakat institutions (ZI) to use the role of zakat distribution during the post-pandemic period due to income shock and long-term unemployment.

This study adopted a qualitative research approach with grounded theory analysis to integrate theoretical insights into the interpretation of gharimin and current practices from the perspectives of ZI and IFI. An in-depth interview with 18 informants was conducted, and data were collected from senior management positions in the zakat distribution department, academicians who are experts in the area of zakat, and heads of Shariah departments in IFI.

Expanding the interpretation of gharimin could help ZI and IFI recover the sustainability of gharimin for preparedness during post-pandemic and any emergency crisis in the future.

This study implies the potential role of ZI in combating the risk of defaulting debtors in IFI to prepare for pandemic recovery in the future.

The new interpretation assists gharimin in reducing the burden debt using the zakat fund and protects genuine debtors by preventing IFI from declaring default or bankruptcy.

This study narrows the literature gaps about gharimin in IFI in the context of the pandemic. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is, perhaps, the first paper to present the expansion of interpretation for gharimin into mu’sir in IFI in Malaysia.