KUALA LUMPUR: While the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) has received scam reports involving losses amounting to RM193mil from January to July this year, only a portion of the funds were successfully frozen.
This, according to Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Comm Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa, was due to the calls to NSRC being made much later after the scam occurred.
"From January and July, the NSRC received calls on scams involving RM193mil in funds.
"However, only RM12mil in funds were successfully frozen as some of the calls were made a month, a week, even a year after the scam occurred," he said when contacted on Saturday (Aug 9).
The funds that were successfully frozen will eventually be returned to the victims under Section 116D of the Criminal Procedure Code, once the legal process is completed, he said.
"Money stolen from scams can disappear within minutes as the scammers act fast.
"I urge the public to report the matter as soon as possible," he said.
Comm Rusdi said that since operating for 24 hours, the centre has received 10,038 calls between Aug 3 and Aug 7.
"Majority of the calls were recorded before 8pm amounting to 7,254 while the remaining ones 2,514 after 8pm.
"Some 51% of the calls were genuine scams while others were inquiries," he said.
Comm Rusdi urged the public to fully utilise the SemakMule portal as it was set up to enable the public to check bank account numbers, phone numbers and companies used by scammers.
"Since Jan 1, 2015, the portal has listed 272,250 bank accounts, 216,242 phone numbers and 14,160 companies.
"From Jan 1, 2015, and Aug 7, the portal has received 35.8 million visitors," he said.
