Hello, that’s one too many

Troublemakers dial in to emergency services during MCO period

At the height of the MCO, the national emergency hotline MERS999 received an average of 2,300 crank calls a day, obstructing emergency services personnel from reaching genuine cases. These pranksters feel bored and trapped and want attention, say docs. What they don’t realise is that if they are caught, they could be fined RM50,000 or face a year in jail.

PETALING JAYA: Imagine being on standby for emergency calls only to have a call come through with the person on the line wanting to flirt.

Pranksters and other culprits are hampering the job of those manning emergency services during the movement control order (MCO) period by making crank calls.

Such calls are a waste of time for the operators or worse, obstructing genuine callers from getting through and seeking help.

Between March 18 and April 27 when MCO was in full swings, the national emergency hotline, MERS999, received 95,000 crank calls – an average of about 2,300 crank calls daily.

According to TM Bhd, which manages the hotline MERS999, many of these callers would make trivial requests of the operators such as asking for songs, telling jokes and laughing. Some callers also went as far as flirting with the operators.

After getting their share of crank calls, MERS999 operators are trained to identify such calls, which are not put through to the relevant first responders.

Operators would record the number of these callers and make a note if that person had made previous calls before.

“Numbers that have made crank calls before will be marked so operators can better assess if the caller is up to his or her old tricks,” TM said.

“But if the calls are deemed genuine, then they will be put through to the relevant agencies which will also check for authenticity.”

According to TM Bhd, which manages the hotline, MERS999 received about 940,000 calls a month in the first three months of the year.

“In January, about 7.48% of of the calls received at the MERS999 response centre were crank calls while in February and March, the percentages were 8.24% and 8.31% respectively,” it said.

Although there had been no marked increase in the number of crank calls during the MCO, such pranks could be endangering lives.

Last year, MERS999 received 13 million calls of which almost 10% were from pranksters, mostly children.

“Pranksters make such calls for fun but sometimes, the calls the response centre receives are obscene, or the person on the other line remains silent,” it said.

TM added that operators might also treat silent calls as genuine emergencies if there were indications that the caller could be keeping quiet for specific reasons such as safety.

Since many crank callers were made by children, TM said parents should advise their youngsters about the consequences of doing so as they might not realise their call was more than just a harmless joke.

“Children, as well as some adults, need to realise that crank calls are not funny and may in fact endanger someone else’s life, especially now, when we are dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Such inappropriate calls would have an effect on response times as operators would need to verify and filter each call,” it said.

It added that while some people make direct calls to the relevant agencies, most Malaysians would dial 999 during emergencies.

TM said it was working with the Communications and Multimedia Ministry to raise public awareness in an effort to minimise crank calls to MERS999. TM also warned that all calls to emergency services are recorded.

It said that legal action could also be taken against crank callers under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of network facilities.

Under the law, anyone found guilty of the offence could be fined up to RM50,000 or face a jail term of up to one year or both.