KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — The police can now bar transactions and seize money from bank accounts suspected to be mule accounts, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M. Kulasegaran said today.

Speaking to the Parliament, Kulasegaran said this is possible after the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code amendments in July came into force on October 30 — allowing the law to prevent the victim’s money from being transferred into another account.

“This amendment allows the police to not only seize but also to prevent the property from being used for other transactions with the aim of preventing money from victims of online scams from being withdrawn from mule accounts.

“And will further complement the existing provisions, namely Section 435 of Act 593 (Criminal Procedure Code) concerning the police’s power to seize property suspected of being stolen, including fraud, which learns more towards physical property,” the deputy minister said in response to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng’s (Pakatan Harapan-DAP) question.

In response to Tumpat MP Mumtaz Md Nawi’s (Perikatan Nasional-PAS) supplementary question, Kulasegaran also said that it was possible for victims to recover their money, citing a case in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Police officers ranked sergeant and above will have the power to freeze transactions or seize the money suspected to be involved in financial crimes.

However, the police can only freeze the accounts if:

  • There was reason to believe that an offence had been committed.
  • There was reason to suspect that the property had been used or was used with the purpose of committing an offence.
  • There is reason to believe that the property is evidence for an offence.

Additionally, he said a proposed Online Safety Bill will mandate online platform service providers to take down content reported as harmful and content suspected to be involved in financial crimes until an investigation is completed.

“Under the new Bill, online financial crimes are categorised as serious and will be given priority.

“If a certain content is reported as an online financial crime, platform providers have the responsibility to take down the content temporarily until further investigation is carried out,” Kulasegaran said.

The National Scam Response Centre said it has received 131,036 complaints from October 2022 to September 2024, and of that total, 52,836 were calls from victims of fraud and scams.

Singapore also recently introduced a Bill to authorise police to issue restriction orders to banks, limiting certain financial transactions for individuals suspected of falling prey to scams.

This Bill would cover money transfers, use of ATM facilities as well as all credit facilities.