Lending out your bank account is now a crime
An offer to "borrow" your bank account sounds small. The money only passes through, and you keep a few hundred ringgit.
In Malaysia, the account holder in that story is breaking the law. Here is what the law says, who to call, and the DECADES cards where a player gets the offer.
What the law says
The Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2024, Act A1721, added four new sections to the Penal Code. It received royal assent on 11 September 2024. The Attorney General's Chambers' Laws of Malaysia site lists it in force from 30 October 2024, by the notice P.U. (B) 433/2024.
The sections cover accounts at licensed banks, Islamic banks and some development finance institutions, and the payment instruments listed under the banking laws. Each offence is about acting "without lawful authority or lawful purpose":
- Section 424A: having someone else's account or payment instrument in your possession or control. A fine of RM 5,000 to RM 50,000, or jail of six months to five years, or both.
- Section 424B: giving someone else, directly or indirectly, possession or control of your own account or payment instrument. A fine of RM 10,000 to RM 100,000, or jail of one to seven years, or both.
- Section 424C: taking part in a transaction that uses your own account, or someone else's. Jail of three to ten years, or a fine of RM 10,000 to RM 150,000, or both.
- Section 424D sets out what "financial institution" and "payment instrument" mean.
Section 424B matches the offer at the top of this post: handing your own account to someone else.
A second law, the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Act 2024, Act A1722, came into force on the same day. It lists the new offences as ones where the police may arrest without a warrant. Its new section 116D lets a police officer of the rank of sergeant or above seize money in an account, or order that nobody deal in it, if the officer suspects a link to an offence. If nobody is prosecuted, the order ends after 18 months.
When a bank freezes an account
Bank Negara Malaysia's questions and answers on frozen and closed accounts say a bank may freeze or close an account under its terms and conditions. The reasons include a direction from the authorities, and a suspicion that the customer or someone else is using the account for illegal or fraudulent activity, scams included.
Can a bank freeze an account without giving a reason? The page's answer is yes. If yours is frozen, it says to contact the bank straight away. You can appeal through the bank's complaints unit, but the decision is the bank's, and Bank Negara does not step in.
The page also points to Semak Mule, run by the police Commercial Crime Investigation Department, where anyone can check whether a bank account number has been reported.
In August 2024, Bank Negara and the banks launched the National Fraud Portal. The press release says it traces stolen money across the financial system automatically, which "prevents further transfers". The banks also agreed on shared rules for handling mule accounts.
When money has been stolen
The government's NSRC 997 page describes the National Scam Response Centre as a rapid response centre for online financial scams, working with Bank Negara and the police. The hotline is 997, open 24 hours a day. The page lists three steps:
- Call 997 within 24 hours of finding out, so the authorities can block accounts and transactions and help get the money back.
- Contact your bank.
- Make a report at the nearest police station.
Bank Negara's press release on the portal puts it in one line: contact your bank or the NSRC at 997 immediately.
In March 2026, the Communications Minister urged victims to call 997 immediately, and said a call to 997 was enough without a separate police report. The government page still lists one.
The cards in DECADES
The game's glossary defines a money mule as "Letting someone use your bank account to move their money. The transfers are crimes, and the account holder answers for them."
"Easy RM 300" can turn up from a player's first year, at 18. It opens like this, word for word:
An old schoolmate messages you on Facebuku. He wants to use your bank account to receive some money. He offers RM 300 a week for no work at all.
Agree, and most of the time there are two weeks of RM 300, then the bank freezes the account and a police letter arrives. The rest of the time he vanishes and nothing happens. "Yet." Ask what the money is for, and there is no real answer. Block him, and your account is still yours.
"Your account sits idle" can come a little later, from about 19:
Shafiq's cousin sends a voice note at 11.40pm. He needs to use your bank account. Money in and out the same day, and you keep RM 500. He says it is for tax reasons.
Say yes, and either the banking app goes grey in week nine with your own RM 1,950 frozen inside, or RM 18,000 passes through and a report is filed in your name. Block him and warn the group chat, and two people say he asked them too. The lesson on that choice: "The freeze, the report and the record land on the account holder, not on the person who asked."
"RM 800 you didn't send" comes later, from about 35:
Your e-wallet pings. RM 800 has arrived from a stranger. Then he messages you, panicked, begging you to send it on to a new number.
Tell him to dispute it through the app, and the money goes back to the real sender. Send it on, and the bank takes the RM 800 back from you. The card's lesson: "Sending it onward makes you the mule."
The game has no frozen account screen. A freeze shows up as lost cash and a line of text.
The game is fiction
DECADES is a game. The schoolmate, the cousin, the stranger and every number on its cards are made up, and what happens on them follows the game's rules, not the law. Nothing here is legal advice or advice about your own money. For anything real, go to the official pages linked above.
Play it
Get the 11.40pm voice note in one life. Play DECADES in your browser, free and with no sign-up.
Teachers can use these cards in class with the 40-minute lesson on the teachers page.