KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 — Eight individuals have been arrested for their suspected involvement in a savings scheme scam involving over RM4 million in losses.
Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) secretary Datuk Noorsiah Saaduddin said the individuals comprising six women and two men, aged between 31 and 37, were detained on Jan 27 following raids in four states.
She said various assets were seized including a luxury vehicle, ATM cards, mobile phones and documents believed to be used for fraudulent activities.
Noorsiah said there were 116 police reports lodged nationwide against the scheme known as ‘sapiza ekstra saving’ involving losses amounting to RM4,438,300.00.
“Preliminary investigations found that the scheme has been active since 2015 by offering savings based on the ‘kutu’ system,” she said in a statement on Sunday (Feb 12).
According to Noorsiah, in 2021, the scheme started offering new saving plans of as low as RM250 to RM20,000 for a period of between two and five months.
“The new plans also promised profits of between 15 per cent and 40 per cent of the total money saved.
“However, since October 2022, the scheme operator failed to pay out returns to participants,” she said.
Noorsiah reminded the public to be vigilant and to carry out checks with official sources, including the Semak Mule application, Bank Negara Malaysia’s alert list, and the Securities Commission before signing up for any investment or saving scheme that promised lucrative returns. — Bernama
