KUALA LUMPUR: Police have investigated 15,106 cases of fraud and scams from mid-October 2022 to this September, the Dewan Rakyat was told.
Of these, 77 cases involved money laundering and the freezing of accounts totalling RM75.35mil.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M. Kulasegaran also said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has taken measures against phone numbers used by scammers.
"(In that same two-year period), MCMC terminated 131 phone numbers involved in scams, while 112 numbers were blocked for suspicious activity," he said on Wednesday (Nov 27).
Hasnizan Harun (PN-Hulu Selangor) wanted to know the government's initiatives to tackle online scams, which have led to losses exceeding RM2.6bil in under three years.
Kulasegaran said a major issue is that those targeted by scammers often fail to properly verify transactions and bank accounts.
He said the authorities have taken and will continue to implement steps to fight this problem.
He said, for example, Bank Negara Malaysia requires financial institutions to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of every financial fraud case.
He added that banks are now also liable for bearing the losses from fraud if these result from any weaknesses on their part.
