I wonder when Malaysians are going to learn. Or is this purely an obsession with greed that no amount of knowledge and learning could ever make a difference? I am referring to another 7,600 individuals who have fallen victim to yet another investment fraud.

The gullibility of Malaysians is beyond comprehension. We have men and women willing to give away everything they own for some promised love over the Internet. We have Malaysians willing to part with thousands of ringgit of their lifelong savings for some “lucrative” but dubious and devious investment scheme based on the inordinate words of an acquaintance or investment advisor. This is how desperate we are if the frequency of scams is used as a gauge.

Many Malaysians must be very desperate for love or very frantic in seeking high returns for their investment. All that is needed is to throw them a story, and voila, the money will start to flow into the schemers’ pockets like an endless mountain stream.

We were taught from young that true love is not about material wealth and money and yet so many are ever willing to part with theirs out of a longing for love and affection. They buy the story hook, line and sinker only to discover they were cheated because of their desperation to be loved.

We were taught the adage of risk-return trade-off and yet many are ever willing to buy the story of lucrative returns without risk. Bonds, gold, forex and exotic stocks are the usual stories. Just the other day, I was “sold” a forex investment with a 20% return per month, a whopping 240% per year. Yes, you did not hear me wrong. I asked the investment advisor to guarantee my investment, but give me only a 5% return per month. He could keep the balance 15% for himself using my capital. He has not come back to see me since. To me, a 5% return per month is more than I can ever get in any other form of investment.

The strategy the schemers use is to appeal to our inherent greed. The more preposterous the promised return, the more we are attracted to it. This is just a reminder – when they take a thousand ringgit from each of us, they could effectively pay us a 10% return per month for the next 10 months using our own money. I know what most of you are thinking, but you can forget your principal sum by now.

Malaysians must be taught the basics of financial management. If an investment sounds too good to be true, it most probably is. There are no free lunches. The regulators, the police and other authorities are not your grand-uncles. By the time they intervene, it is usually too late. Your money is as good as gone.

TK Chua is an FMT reader.

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