SIBU, Sept 4 — Greed for quick profits and easily being deceived are among main reasons for increase in cybercrime cases resulting in losses amounting to RM7,701,335.82 in the last eight months.

Sibu district police chief ACP Zulkipli Suhaili said the amount had already surpassed last year’s total losses of RM5,076,906.64 by a huge margin.

Speaking to reporters here today, he said non-existent investment fraud recorded the highest loss at RM2,232,038.33, followed by online purchases (RM1,366,806.69), non-existent employment scams (RM1,393,507.06), love scams (RM1,136,440.00) and telephone call scams (RM1,035,920.75).

"The other cases are non-existent loans (RM295,025.80), lottery scams (RM133,712.80), parcel scams (RM45,962.00), OTP number/bank information scams (RM34,122.39) and fake friend/relative scams (RM27,800),” he said.

He said a total of 298 investigation papers were opened from January to August this year. — Bernama