Public urged to be wary of latest cyber crime trends

Sentul district police chief ACP Beh Eng Lai said losses involving cyber crime cases often involved large amounts of money, especially when business fronts are used for illegal activities.

A total of 511 online fraud cases were reported at the Sentul district police headquarters last year involving losses amounting to RM10,209,648, he told Bernama, recently.

Of the total, Beh said e-commerce scams (online shopping) topped the chart with 251 cases, followed by telecommunication scams involving phone calls and short messaging system (203), love scams (36) and e-financial fraud with 21 cases.

On the success of the Sentul police in their battle against cyber crimes, he said the latest was they busted an online gambling syndicate on Jan 13 after raiding a condominium unit, here, that was used as a call centre.

Beh said following the raid, three men believed to be involved in the online gambling activities were detained and further investigations found that the syndicate was able to rake in profit of up to RM100,000 a month.

According to him, the modus operandi of such syndicates was to promote easy ways to earn money by sharing links on social media sites such as Facebook and WeChat to deceive their victims.

He said there were also syndicates offering job seekers a commission as an online purchasing agent.

Beh said the syndicates would usually pay the promised commissions for the first two purchases made by the victims.

However, he said the syndicates would delay payments after the victims made their subsequent purchase before being uncontactable.

Beh also advised the public to wary of syndicates impersonating official authorities such as police through telephone calls.

"If members of the public receive calls from suspicious numbers, stop the conversation immediately and hang up. Inform your family members or friends and check the number by contacting the nearest police station," he said.

Meanwhile, Beh said the crime rate in Sentul has seen a drop in cases registering 1,549 cases last year from 1,848 cases in 2020.