M'sians cheated of nearly RM300m by fraudsters this year

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysians have been cheated of almost RM300 million this year alone, due to the ever-increasing threat of cybercrimes.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said 8,313 cybercrime cases were reported to the police Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) from January to October 3.

“The most common scams are telecommunication fraud, e-financial fraud, 419 scams and e-commerce scams,” he said in a press conference.

Telecommunication fraud cases resulted in RM162.6 million being lost, whereas e-financial fraud resulted in RM37.2 million in losses, 419 scams with RM80.08 million in losses, and e-commerce scams with RM19.56 million in losses.

Although most cases involve foreigners, Gobind said based on the number of cases reported, e-commerce scams are mostly perpetrated by Malaysians, possibly due to the increased popularity of e-commerce.

Later speaking to Malay Mail, CCID director Comm Datuk Seri Amar Singh Ishar Singh said although there are currently no statistics on how many arrests have been made in Malaysia on cybercrimes, the places commonly raided by the authorities are call centres.

“These call centres target people living in other countries, just as foreigners target Malaysians. So even if the centres do not victimise our citizens, they are still considered guilty,” he said.

Amar said he is concerned with the substantial proliferation of cybercrimes in the past few years, since it is not easy to track down such cases.