RM1.5mil lost to Labuan Internet con jobs
Published on: Thursday, January 10, 2019
By: Bernama
LABUAN: The Labuan commercial crime investigation authorities recorded about RM1.5 million in total losses last year attributed to the purchase of goods and services over the Internet.
Labuan Police chief Supt Muhamad Farid Ahmad said telecommunications fraud via online and the Short Messaging Service (SMS) notched the highest number of cases with RM947,055 in losses recorded.
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“This is a worrying situation as the amount hit more than RM1 million in total losses and we believe many victims have remained silent,” he told a press conference after the police monthly assembly.
He said the 419 Scam, or popularly known as African Scam, cases were the second highest with RM491,720 in losses and e-commerce (online purchase), RM45,705.
In November last year, two women lost their life savings amounting to RM584,100 after falling prey to phone scams, known as the Macau and African scams.
In the first of the cases, a 39-year-old academician who thought she found true love online ended up heartbroken and broke after she fell victim to a romance scam.
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She lost RM376,100 to her month-old “fake lover” whom she had come to know on Facebook.
In the other case, a 49-year-old housewife was convinced her accounts were jeopardised after being implicated in a so-called money-laundering case.
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Little did she know her case was just a fabrication, leading to her entire life savings going up in smoke.
The two cases were not isolated as the Labuan police have recorded a total of 37 cases online and phone scams involving RM1,329,110 since January last year.
Labuan also surpassed its key performance indicator (KPI) in resolving crime cases by 10.64 per cent above the KPI target of 45 per cent for 2018.
Muhamad Farid said 266 cases were recorded and 146 had been resolved in the courts.
He said the rate of bringing cases to court also surpassed the target of 35 per cent when 42.47 per cent was recorded.
Farid said the crime index last year soared by 30.39 per cent, from 204 in 2017 to 266 cases, with property crimes going up from 184 to 241 cases.
A total of 25 violent cases were recorded compared to 20 in 2017, an increase of five per cent.
Police crime analysis revealed that 60.04 per cent of the 513 criminals arrested were Malaysian, and the remaining 39.95 per cent, foreigners.
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