PETALING JAYA: A total of 11,367 cases of cybercrime were reported from January to July this year, police said today.
During this period, Macau scams (by people posing as government officers) chalked up 4,912 cases, involving a loss of RM199.8 million, Bernama reported.
E-commerce crimes recorded 5,397 cases with a loss of RM71.6 million. There were 543 cases of e-financial fraud or phishing with a loss of RM40.5 million.
Besides the Macau scams, love scams and phishing, fraudsters also cheated people by offering non-existent loans or investments, said Victor Sanjos, deputy director of the commercial crime investigation department.
Speaking at an online forum on safeguarding bank accounts, Sanjos said cybercrime had been increasing since 2016.
He said scammers had come up with ‘app scams’, a phishing tactic to obtain names, passwords and information about the user. A total of 39 app scams were recorded this year, involving losses of RM721,728.
He warned that scammers commonly used advertisements on social media platforms to find victims.
Another speaker, Vijayadurai Singgatore of Bank Negara Malaysia said the central bank and the banking industry were also constantly improving security standards so that users would be more confident about doing online banking.
“Many banks have increased the level of security by creating ‘device binding’, which means that if users want to do internet banking, they must only use a registered device,” he said.
AmBank Islamic Bhd CEO Eqhwan Mokhzanee Muhammad advised victims of scams to immediately contact their banks, even before they made a police report, so that their accounts could be frozen immediately. “All their passwords or PIN numbers must be changed.”