13 February 2013| last updated at 12:10AM
Scam statistics still high
By LEE SHI-IAN | [email protected]
GULLIBLE PEOPLE: More than RM1 billion lost in various cheating cases last year
KUALA LUMPUR: PEOPLE from all walks of life, including a High Court judge, lost an estimated RM1.13 billion last year from various cheating cases, scams and bogus investment schemes.
In December, a High Court judge lodged a police report in Kedah claiming that he had lost RM50,000 in an investment scheme. After being questioned by police, the judge admitted that greed had been a motivating factor in his investing the money.
Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said police had received 97,685 reports last year, with total losses amounting to RM1.62 billion.
"Cheating cases contributed the bulk of the losses as many still do not heed the advice that if it is too good to be true, it probably is. Many victims realise too late that they have been cheated, by which time the culprits have disappeared."
He told the New Straits Times that the biggest loss in cheating cases, which is divided into nine categories, was in investment schemes, which saw reported losses of RM95 million.
"Commonly reported cases like the African parcel scam and Macau scam recorded losses of RM40 million and RM22 million, respectively," Syed Ismail said.
"The public have been warned repeatedly against schemes and scams which promise returns which are simply too good to be true.
"Instead of being wary, they jump in with both feet."
Despite the increase in the number of losses, Syed Ismail's team have also been equally hardworking with a number of notable arrests and seizure of various paraphernalia including laptops and mobile phones.
On Jan 31, a team from Bukit Perdana raided apartment units in Bukit Beruang, Malacca, where they arrested seven African men and two women from the Philippines for cheating numerous foreigners, all women.
A complaint had been filed by a Hong Kong social worker who lost RM192,000 to a syndicate member who had led her into believing that he would marry her. She later came to Malaysia to assist investigations.
Earlier last month, police busted an international syndicate that had been raking in millions of ringgit by supplying fake Hewlett Packard printer ink to the Middle East and African countries.
The main suspect, a 38-year-old Singaporean, was arrested by police who seized two boxes of ink cartridges from him. The suspect, who is married to a local, took police to his condominium unit in Brickfields.
Police later raided a premise in an industrial area in Bukit Permai Utama, Ampang where the fake ink was produced and packed using HP packaging.
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