Cheating scams on the rise

By THO XIN YI

MANY people are duped by cheating scams because of greed and gullibility, according to a senior police officer.

Selangor Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Asst Comm Mohammad Karim Abu said there was no such thing as easy cash windfall, but many people were greedy and gullible enough to fall for the quick-money tricks.

Mohammad said this when opening a seminar on Fraud – The Silent Crime at the Binary University College in Puchong, Selangor, last Saturday. About 30 people were present.

The seminar was sponsored by GSL Materials Recycling Sdn Bhd and organised by the Kinrara MCA Service Centre and the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF).

According to Mohammad, one common scam is the SMS ruse telling the message recipient that he had won a big sum of money in a contest or lottery and that he would receive the prize money if he banked into an account several hundreds of ringgit as service or processing charges.

“Last year, 2,124 cases of commercial crime were reported in Selangor, with a value of RM1.64bil,” he said.

“In the first half of this year, 1,726 cases were reported.

“This is a 57.6% increase over the 1,094 cases recorded in the first half of last year.

“Thus, we expect a 100% increase by the end of this year,” Mohammad said.

Topping the list of cases last year was cheating (1,217 cases), followed by criminal breach of trust (468 cases) and possession of illegal or X-rated DVD/VCD (189 cases).

Most of the cases were reported in Subang Jaya (609), followed by Petaling Jaya (418) and Klang (318 ).

According to Mohammad, unlike the Criminal Investigation Department, the Commercial Crime Investigation Department needs a longer time in investigating a case before charging an accused in court as many complications have to be sorted out.

“We send out letters every three months to the complainants to inform them about the latest status of their cases,” he said.

Supt Ng Keok Chai from the Selangor commercial crime unit, who was the main speaker at the seminar, touched on various issues related to cheating scams.

He highlighted the various types of fraud, symptoms of fraud, why people commit fraud, fraud detection and fraud prevention.

According to Ng, the types of fraud include superstition scams involving bomohs and mediums, land fraud, car purchase racket, online shopping swindle, and tear-and-win ruse.

Dr Kow Cheong Wei, a Selangor MCPF committee member, said the cheating syndicates often used the names of established companies to deceive their victims.

“Before carrying out a promotion, a company will have to register with the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry,” he said.

Kow said to curb the fraud problems, the government should make it compulsory to list down the registration numbers at the ministry's website for people to check the genuineness of the promotion.

The public can reach the Selangor Commercial Crime Investigation Department operation room at 03-2616 3999/3822.