Victims lose RM7mil to cyber criminals

(From left) Dr Sundra­moorthy, Comm Mohd Shuhaily, Dr Rozaini and Zakaria during the townhall discussion on Facebook Live.

PENANG has recorded a 58.8% rise in cyber crime rate with losses of RM7mil recorded since 2020.

By the end of 2021, cases are expected to rise up to 62.8%.

Citing an example, state police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain said a graduate lost RM20,000 to a scammer after he was offered a “job”.

“E-business and Macau scam have the highest number of cases in Penang this year.

“In addition, job offering scams from Shopee have also increased this year with 80 cases on the island.

“The scammers are very well-versed in disguise using fake accounts and positions.

“Many citizens are willing to invest a lot of money to gain a shortcut to success.

“Solving social problems must be put as a priority henceforth in curbing crimes,” he said during a townhall discussion streamed on Facebook Live yesterday.

Criminologist Assoc Prof Datuk Dr P. Sundramoorthy of Universiti Sains Malaysia acted as moderator of the discussion while Welfare Department director Zakaria Taib was also present.

According to a report by the Interpol, Singapore has the highest number of cyber crime cases.

The report shows a rise of cyber crime in all other countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Comm Mohd Shuhaily said police faced challenges in identifying the cyber criminals who were hard to detect as they created mule accounts and developed spoofing techniques such as alternation of voice.

Spoofing or voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions in the forms of voice, fax, SMS or voice-messaging over the Internet.

Comm Mohd Shuhaily said the police would continue to educate the public about scamming cases.Meanwhile, crime cases such as violent crime and property crime saw a decrease from 2019 to early 2020 before showing a spike in cases this year.

This led to the police increasing roadblocks and patrols around the island, as well as more home-to-home searches and motorcycle seizure operations.

These resulted in the capture of 1,258 criminals with 60% of cases solved this year.

In the narcotics report, Comm Mohd Shuhaily said police successfully seized crystallised syabu worth about RM58mil and nimetazepam under the brand name Erimin, worth RM202,335.

“The geographical shape of our island’s location makes it strategic to transport drugs from other countries,” he added.

Also present at the townhall discussion was Health Department director assistant senior director (infectious diseases) Dr Rozaini Mat Shah who mentioned that she hoped to see more Covid-19 green zones in the mukim (sub-districts) in all districts soon.

She said the trend of spread was mostly due to sporadic and close contact infections.

“Both these categories charted 35% and 40% respectively this past week.

“As for cluster cases, they have reached 24.8%,” she said.

She said the Health Department would continue working harder to make Penang a green zone area from Covid-19.