KUALA LUMPUR: Petaling Jaya police have opened a total of 85 investigation papers involving cases of online trading fraud involving losses estimated at RM650,809 from early January to today.

District police chief ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid said during the same period, a total of 21 cases have been charged in court.

He said in a country that is being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals were trying to take advantage of online businesses and it had a high risk in terms of fraud.

"Therefore, the Commercial Crime Investigation Division of the district police headquarters has received many reports in relation to cases of fraud involving purchases of goods online such as on Mudah.my, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms," he said in a statement.

Mohamad Fakhrudin advised the public not to be easily deceived by the advertised sale offer and that they should verify it before making payment.

"The public is also advised to check the CCID portal at http://ccid.rmp.gov.my before making any financial transactions," he said.

Meanwhile, the police also issued 15 summonses against traders at the Jalan Margosa morning market in Sri Damansara, here, today, for not complying with standard operating procedures set by the National Security Council (MKN).

He said 13 summonses were issued to traders for not providing a MySejahtera QR Code scanner and having no body temperature measuring device while two more summonses were to customers for not scanning the MySejahtera QR Code.

-- BERNAMA