KUALA LUMPUR: A majority of victims who fell prey to online scams were Malays, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin said.
Based on recent statistics, Hamzah said Malay victims made up 42,755 cases, followed by 21,225 Chinese victims, 7,039 Indian victims while 8,540 were other races.
"A total of 79,559 online scam cases were reported between Jan and Sept 15 this year with losses amounting to RM2,513,732,701.72.
"The most vulnerable group that became online scam victims were those aged between 21 and 40 years old," he said in a written parliamentary reply to Sim Chee Keong (PH – Bukit Mertajam).
Sim had asked the Home Minister to detail out the statistics of scam calls that led to victims losing their savings, according to the year, state, gender, race, age group as well as the banks involved in these cases and the total losses since 2018 up to now.
However, Hamzah said he would provide a written reply to Sim since the latter's question required very detailed statistics.