Losses reaching RM 1.6 billion were recorded in Malaysia due to online fraud over the past 19 months according to the Director of the Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf. These are statistics up to July this year only and during that period a total of 40,385 cases of online fraud were reported.
Of these, 15,782 cases involved fraud in online purchases, 8,655 investment fraud, 4,438 cases of telephone fraud and 1,362 cases of romance fraud. The case of online purchase fraud alone caused a loss of RM243.5 million while fraud over the phone amounted to RM224.2 million.
Therefore, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf advised the public not to be easily deceived by advertising through Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat and various other online platforms.
Previously, the PDRM said that Malaysians lost RM100,000 every day due to online fraud. The value of losses due to online fraud is increasing because 12 years ago a loss of RM2.75 billion was recorded in five years.
The current issue is that social media operators are very lax in approving product advertising on their platforms. Even if it is reported, the time it takes to take action is slow. As long as there is no action involving high fines, we see social media will remain the medium of choice for online fraud.