KUALA LUMPUR: Online and phone scammers are having an easier time deceiving their victims due to the latter’s gullibility, greed and a lack of awareness, Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani says.
This has caused a steep rise in such cases over the past decade.
Despite efforts taken by police in clamping down on the menace through enforcement and bringing awareness to the public, the numbers continue rising.
Last year, RM510 million was lost in 17,109 cases reported while almost RM450 million was lost this year between January and last month in 17,537 scam cases of all kinds.
“While the growth of technology in online transactions has improved and facilitated the daily lives of society, it has also opened doors to unscruplous individuals who have taken advantage of it to commit crimes, especially online scamming,“ he said during the launch of the Commercial Crimes Campaign (online crimes) 2021 at the Berjaya Times Square Hotel here, yesterday. He expressed concern for the growing trend in the number of such cases.
“In 2019, there were 3,512 cases where RM28 million was lost. Last year, the number rose to 5,846 cases that recorded RM41 million in losses and this year up until last month we already have 8,061 cases with RM58 million lost to the scammers. By year end, we believe the total numbers will triple to what we saw in 2019. This solely involves online scams and does not include Macau scams, African scams and love scams,“ he said.
Acryl Sani said many cases may have gone unreported by victims as the losses involved were small.
“Even if the amount is small, they should come forward to lodge police reports. This will help police obtain details of the scammers such as their bank account and telephone numbers which we can then place in our blacklisted mule account database. This will help others when they check the CCID’s (commercial crimes investigations department) scam check website (http://semakmule.rmp.gov.my),“ he said.
Acryl Sani also cautioned the public about Macau scams where scammers pose as enforcement officials from the police and other agencies to fleece their victims.
He advised the public to not entertain such calls as enforcement agencies will never attempt to resolve a case by phone calls but in person.
The Commercial Crimes Campaign (online crimes) 2021, themed “Commercial Crimes Awareness for the Wellbeing of the Community”, will run throughout this month.
It is organised by the CCID in collaboration with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), e-commerce platforms and social media personalities.
