A total of RM 64 million already lost to cybercrimes for the past three months according to a joint statement from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM). Both organizations today have announced the establishment of a formal committee to combat cyber-crimes.
It is indeed a worrying trend since the amount of monetary loss due to cyber crimes have been going up on a yearly basis. According to the joint statement, the amount of loss in 2017 was RM 266 million which then increased to RM 398 million in 2018.
In a response to members of the media at a press conference earlier today, Mazlan Mansor, the Director of PDRM’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department stated that most of the losses were related to Macau Scam. Also known as voice phishing, a typical Macau Scam case usually involved the culprit pretending to be an officer from authorities or financial institutions and attempt to obtain financial information from the victim.
Mazlan further pointed out that some of these cases involved big transactions which is why the amount of monetary loss every year was rather huge. Hence, he has urged members of the public to verify such calls first before making any move.
(References: MCMC. Main image: Two hundred percent @ Wikimedia Commons.)
