Cops all out to bust cybercrimes

PETALING JAYA: Bukit Aman is working closely with NGOs and institutions of higher learning to help create more awareness on scams, with an eye on cybercrimes rising “rapidly” in the country.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Zakaria Ahmad (pic) said while the issue had been widely publicised on various media platforms, much more needed to be done as many Malay­sians continued to be fooled by scammers.

“We will enlist the help of NGOs, including consumer groups and the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foun­dation. We are also looking into working with institutions of higher learning so that students will also be vigilant against the many scams,” he told The Star.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said that in the first five months this year, cybercrimes resulted in losses amounting to some RM153mil, which was 38% of the total losses of RM398.6mil recorded last year.

She said losses from e-financial fraud cases also showed a significant jump within the same period, totalling RM40.7mil which surpassed the amount for the whole of 2018.She said although numerous preventive efforts were being carried out, such crimes in the country remained high.

Earlier this year, a total of 145 mule account holders were detained following a three-week swoop na­tion­­wide against scammers, with each of those detained having at least three accounts used by scammers. The basic modus operandi for mule accounts are large sums of money being transferred into an account and being withdrawn soon after.

The detained were 90 men and 55 women aged between 19 and 63.

The accounts were used for various cyber-crimes, including Macau Scam, loan scams and e-commerce scams.

Those detained claimed of being “duped” into holding mule accounts, of having their banking information misused when they borrowed from loan sharks and giving their bank account and ATM details to people they befriended online.

Police are also actively collecting intelligence to identify and apprehend the various scam syndicates, Comm Mohd Zakaria said.

“We are also working with our counterparts overseas to ensure that scam rings are busted.

“However, the public must also play their part by not falling for the various schemes,” he said.

Comm Mohd Zakaria said it was surprising that Malaysians were still being duped by various scams.

“The list of victims range from professionals such as doctors and businessmen to housewives and senior citizens.

“For loan scams, it is illogical if someone wants to take a loan of RM30,000, they have to pay an initial fee that is higher.

“As for Macau scam, no law enforcement personnel or bank officer will call someone and ask them to transfer their life savings into another account on suspicion that the victim is involved in a crime.

“In the first place, if you didn’t commit a crime, then why do so (transferring life savings)?” he said.

He advised the public to be more wary of anything suspicious or out of the ordinary.

“If you receive calls from anyone who claimed to be from any authority, verify the information that they gave instead of panicking and quickly believing it.

“The same can be said for strangers sending parcels to you and expect you to pay a certain amount to get the items ‘released’ from the Customs. Be more vigilant and don’t be naive or easily fooled,” he said.

Comm Mohd Zakaria advised the public to refer to the CCID’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/Cyber­­CrimeAlertRMP/) for more information.

“We update the page regularly with various information of types of scams and their modus operandi,” he said.