Website to check dubious accounts

KUALA LUMPUR: The federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) will soon launch a web portal where the public can verify bank account numbers to ascertain if it is genuine or blacklisted as fraudulent.

The website, that will be fully accessible to the public in the near future, was created by the CCID to counter the rising number of cheating cases involving online trading and other scams.

Federal CCID deputy director and head of cyber and multimedia investigation SAC Ahmad Noordin Ismail said yesterday the portal is in its trial stages and being finetuned before it is officially launched by CCID director Comm Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani, who mooted the idea for the website.

He said just hours after a trial run was launched a few days ago, the portal had received 47,000 hits and 25,000 searches.

“The portal is being built to deter fraud and help the public when they are carrying out transactions that involve bank accounts.

“The search allows them to verify if any given bank account number had been reported to be involved in fraud,” Ahmad Noordin said.

The website is accessible at http://ccid.rmp.gov.my/ semamule/.

On average, police receive about 500 reports each month involving e-commerce fraud that often required buyers to make payments via bank transfers before purchases are delivered.

Last year, over 6,200 reports were lodged by online shoppers who were fleeced of about RM30 million.