KUALA LUMPUR: Several police reports have been lodged over the misuse of images involving celebrities, preachers and politicians in promoting Islamic and Syariah-compliant investment schemes.
Police secretary Deputy Comm Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin said the Commercial Crime Investigation Department had detected advertisements of investment scams on various social media platforms.
"Based on the advertisements, the schemes promised returns of up to 50 times the value invested.
"They also claimed that profits would be paid as early as three hours after the initial investment was made," she said in a statement on Saturday (June 24).
She said the advertisements also used pictures of celebrities, well-known preachers and politicians to attract investors.
"Investigations revealed that these people are not involved in the schemes and have never allowed anyone to use their images.
"We have received reports from several individuals over the misuse of these images," she said, adding that 186 cases have been investigated from January 2020 to May this year involving Syariah-compliant investment scams.
She said these cases resulted in at least RM5.411mil in losses.
DCP Noorsiah urged the public to always be cautious and to not be easily tricked by investment schemes which offer high returns.
"The public must conduct detailed checks from official sources such as the semak mule portal, Bank Negara Malaysia's Alert List as well as the Securities Commission before investing," she said.
