KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — More Malaysians have been getting conned online in the past two years.

Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said commercial crimes through the internet have doubled since 2019.

The losses suffered by scam victims this year alone have amounted to RM58 million so far.

Acryl said the police are stepping up its awareness campaign to counter scammers.

"If we wait till December it could get worse and the amount may double or triple from 2019,” he said during the launch of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) campaign on online frauds.

"Losses in 2019 was RM28 million, then in 2020 it was RM41 million and then till October this year we are already at RM58 million.”

"This trend is still increasing and we feel that if we do not take action now, by December the numbers could double or triple,” the IGP said.

He added that 8,992 cases of fraud and scams were reported up to October this year compared to 5,846 in 2020 and 2,512 cases in 2019.

The Macau Scam involves individuals pretending to be ranking officials, police, VIPs, customs officers or even Magistrates.

The Love Scam or Africa Scam is when someone pretends to be your girlfriend or boyfriend then defrauds you of your money while the remaining scams are E-Commerce crimes or ‘E-dagang’ and illegal money-lending operations.

PDRM’s director of Commercial Crimes Department Datuk Mohd Kamaruddin Mohd Din said commercial crimes through online means have increased by 60 per cent this year.

He said there was an urgent need to educate the public against getting scammed adding that the entire month of November will be dedicated to this.

"This campaign is aimed at ensuring the public are aware of these types of fraudulent activities. We’ll be organising large campaigns throughout November.

"Activities like talks, seminars, Friday sermons — which include some form of awareness — and also high profile policing as well as meet-and-greets will be organised.

"After that things like face-to-face and social media will be used to keep the campaign going,” he added.

The IGP advised scam victims to report their losses to the police no matter the amount so law enforcers can track down the criminals.

He said victims can call the CCID Scam Response Center at 03-26101559 or 03-26101599, and the CCID infoline at 013-2111222. 

Those who prefer to text can do so via the SEMAKMULE app that can be downloaded at the Google Play Store or via Facebook.