Today, the Royal Malaysian Police announced that they have established a new unit called the Technical and Tactical Cyber Unit to assist the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) in curbing various cyber and online crimes that occur in Malaysia.
Inspector General of Police, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said that a total of 17 posts have been filled to enable the unit to begin the first phase of operations to detect and take action against various cyber crimes that occur in the country.
For now, since there is no provision for new staffing, the PDRM uses existing internal members to appoint members in this unit.
"This move is expected to increase PDRM's ability to effectively deal with cyber threats," he said during the Chief of Police's Monthly Assembly organized by JSJK in Bukit Aman today.
With the recent use of AI technology, he also said that the modus operandi of these digital criminals is getting more complicated. Technology such as deepfake in the form of video, audio and even pictures make false information allow them to deceive the public more easily.
To enable the PDRM to facilitate the law enforcement process, amendments to Section 424 of the Penal Code and Section 116D of the Criminal Procedure Code passed in the Dewan Rakyat in July 2024 will empower the enforcement of commercial crime laws.
Amendments to Section 424 include offenses related to the use of donkey accounts; including owning, controlling and using ATM cards, credit cards, digital wallets and any payment instruments used for fraudulent purposes.
The amendment to Section 116D empowers police officers with the rank of not less than Sergeant to confiscate these payment instruments and block transactions related to financial transactions.
Tan Sri Razarudin Husain further said that from January to September 2024, a total of 24,671 cases of online fraud crimes have been reported with losses estimated at as high as RM1.04 billion. The six types of online crimes that are often seen in Malaysia include telecommunication crimes, e-finance, e-commerce, Love Scam, fake loans and investments.
In dealing with these criminal cases, he also said that from January to September this year, a total of 17,661 operations and raids were carried out, and a total of 18,506 individuals were arrested under commercial crime offences.