KUALA LUMPUR: Love scammers have made a killing by making away with RM67 million from victims this year. And men are also falling prey to such honeyed traps.
The Home Ministry said of the 1,303 love or parcel scam cases reported this year, 1,070 were female victims and 230 were males, with a whopping RM67,737,419.38 in losses recorded.
Macau scam victims also burned a RM94,040,451.65-hole in their pockets. Of the total 1,911 victims, a majority or 1,109 were female.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Azis Jamman said women were easy targets of such syndicates and hence there was a need for increased awareness.
“We realise that this issue has been going on for a long time in this country. The ministry through the police always stresses the importance for Malaysians, especially women, to understand these scams’ MO (modus operandi).
“If they receive promotions or offers from unknown persons, they need to verify it to ensure that they will not be conned.
“With the advancement of technology, the issue of scams are not new. Even in developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom scams are still happening.
“The ministry and the police will continue to work with the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry because we know that women are easy targets for these syndicates,” Azis told reporters at the parliament lobby.
Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister Hannah Yeoh joined him in making the statement. She said that based on data, Macau scams, love scams and parcel scams have mainly focused on women.
“The scams are still rampant and they target lonely women,” said Yeoh, adding the scammers were tuned-in to the victims' online patterns.
“Because it involves friendships and relationships, they feel ashamed to even lodge a police report and suffer in silence.
“They are afraid that their family members will judge them. The most important thing is not to panic and come forward to make police reports.”
She also urged the women to be extra cautious about receiving parcels from strangers as Christmas is around the corner.
The Macau scam involves a scammer impersonating someone with authority such as a policeman or a bank officer over the phone, who would attempt to convince the victim that they need to pay money to avoid trouble.
For love scams or parcel scams, usually the scammed would strike up a friendship or relationship with the victim online.
The scammer would then convince the victim to send them money or entice the latter with parcel delivery.
Yeoh said it was crucial for those who were being contacted by suspected scammers to not panic but verify the information first instead of making immediate transactions.
She said that people should also avoid giving their contact number, bank account information and IC number to strangers, especially those calling from unknown numbers.
Based on the 2019 statistics of five currently active syndicated commercial crime cases, investment scams took the number one spot and record the biggest loss at RM200,781,043.90.
Men were the biggest victims of investment scams, making up 577 victims out of a total of 842.
In second place are Macau scams while love scams or parcel scams came third, followed by non-existent loans which recorded a total loss of RM38,894,980.87 from a total of 4,151 victims.
Of these, 2,261 were male victims and 1,889 were female victims.
The fifth top scam is online purchase with 2,947 victims scammed of RM24,691,509.21. Of these, 1,906 were male and 1,040 were female victims.