KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 — Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Ramkarpal Singh today said that whether or not there are elements of leakages involving insiders behind online scams, will depend on the outcome of ongoing investigations.

He said this is currently being investigated through a case-by-case basis.

"The scam incidents are complex occurrences in which the scammers are quite experienced in coming up with these scams. So, to know whether it involves internal leaks or anything else, depends on each case and it is investigated on a case-by-case basis,” he said during his Question Time in Parliament today.

He was replying to a supplementary question from Perikatan Nasional (PN) Tanah Merah MP Datuk Seri Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz on the possibility of inside jobs contributing to the online scam cases among retirees.

Ikhmal mentioned that a total of 22,000 government retirees and professionals have become the victims of online scams involving RM850 million.

He questioned how the scammers were able to know the financial situation of the victims and demanded investigations to be carried out.

"I feel sorry for the retirees and those who were deceived, they are not only government employees, but also professionals.

"Is there any possibility that there are employees or insiders from financial institutions leaking someone's bank information because how can they find out how much the victim has saved, how much money they have? I believe this is an inside job. We need to capture the mastermind," he said.

Ramkarpal said since 2018, there have been 25,609 cases of such scams, with losses amounting to over RM23.92 million and the latest figure in 2023 records a total of 19,220 cases.

He added that as of September 30 this year, the total losses amount to RM688 million.

"This shows that the number of cases and losses are declining,” he said.

He further said that the prosecution and punishment in online scam cases, a total of 183 charges were filed under Section 417 of the Penal Code from 2021 to July 2023, resulting in sentences for 617 individuals.

Additionally, he said a total of 22,837 charges were filed under Section 420 of the Penal Code with 2,221 individuals receiving sentences.