JOHOR BARU, Oct 5 — Police today dismissed a warning being shared on social media about criminals selling kidnapped victims’ organs to hospitals in Johor as fake.

Johor police chief Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat labelled the message that is making its rounds on social media as untrue.

He said investigators were alerted to the fake message on a seven-second long video that was uploaded on social media application TikTok by an account owner named Aesthethicharu.

"Based on investigations, we can confirm that no police report has been lodged regarding the criminal incident as alleged in the message.

"The message is seen as an attempt to create widespread fear and panic among the public,” said Kamarul Zaman in a statement here today.

The state’s top cop stressed that spreading such false speculation is illegal and against the law as action can be taken under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

He said those found guilty under the law can be fined not more than RM50,000 or imprisoned for a year or both.

"The Johor police contingent advises the public not to easily believe such claims from unverified sources," said Kamarul Zaman.

This latest message is believed to be another variation of a message alleging the abduction of children for their organs that was first detected by the authorities in 2017.

Last Wednesday, it was reported that the federal police had dismissed another similar fake message being shared on social media about the abduction of six children for the purpose of harvesting their organs.

Police said the fake message has been making its rounds since 2017 and had been re-posted on various social media platforms recently.