{
  "id": 18256222,
  "title": "Matrade warns of fraudsters impersonating its staff",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/05/matrade-warns-of-fraudsters-impersonating-its-staff-18256222",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-05T05:38:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2026/11/05/matrade-warns-of-fraudsters-impersonating-its-staff"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Maltrade, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, has issued a warning to businesses about fraudsters impersonating its staff through email and WhatsApp. The scammers target vendors by posing as Matrade personnel and requesting sensitive documents to fabricate fraudulent letters of award and government purchase orders. They also instruct awarded vendors to purchase merchandise and gift supplies from fraudulent sub-vendors before government disbursement. Matrade has lodged police reports and complaints with CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission for digital forensic investigations and enforcement action. To avoid falling victim to these scams, businesses are advised to verify all procurement requests and ensure communications originate from Matrade's official corporate email addresses ending with @matrade.gov.my.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Bernama",
        "title": "Business : MATRADE Warns Businesses Of Fraudsters Impersonating Its Personnel",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/05/business-matrade-warns-businesses-of-fraudsters-impersonating-its",
        "published": "2026-11-05T03:43:51.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}