PETALING JAYA: Two dozen reports and almost half a million ringgit in losses have been linked to the Kim Seri tour package scandal, says Bukit Aman.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said police had received 24 reports to date, with losses estimated at RM454,450.
“It is advised that victims immediately lodge police reports at the nearest police station so that investigations can be conducted,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Comm Ramli added that investigations by the police will be conducted under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
A number of cases have also been forwarded to other relevant agencies such as the Tribunal for Consumer Claims.
Seoul-based Malaysian influencer Kim Seri, whose real name is Seri Azlina, recently issued a public apology and promised to refund customers affected by issues arising from her South Korea travel packages. She has pledged to settle the matter by or before Feb 1, 2025.
A video went viral recently showing a woman claiming to be one of Kim Seri’s victims.
In the video, she said she and her group were stranded at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea because there were no flight tickets as promised by the influencer.
The woman claimed that checks at the ticket counter revealed that her name and her fellow passengers’ names were not in the system.
The complainant managed to return to Malaysia on Tuesday with the help of another individual.
Separately, the Finance Ministry said an estimated 22,000 cases of scams involving losses of over RM147mil as at September this year were reported by the victims to the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC).
In a written reply to the Dewan Negara, the ministry said the NSRC received 64,000 calls, including case reports from scam victims and advisory services to the general public.
“Based on the reports, over 43,000 suspected mule accounts were identified for action from financial institutions to block multiple layers of transactions used to hide illicit funds,” it said, according to Bernama.
The ministry was responding to Senator Manolan Mohamad’s question regarding the number of scam cases that were detected and blocked with the establishment of the National Fraud Portal (NFP).It said the NFP was established to strengthen the NSRC in tracking and freezing funds.
“Since its launch in April 2024 until September 2024, the NFP has successfully reduced the time required to trace funds by 75% and increased the amount of frozen funds by 34% compared with the monthly average before the portal’s launch,” the ministry added.
