KUALA LUMPUR: Losses connected to commercial crime cases have snowballed to RM1.529 billion so far this year.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the losses were based on 18,205 reports lodged between January and Aug 11 this year.
"The losses so far shows a 31 per cent increase as compared to the RM1.16 billion which was lost in the same period last year," he said when contacted by the New Straits Times recently.
The number of cases recorded so far this year has dipped by eight per cent as compared to the 19,720 cases recorded last year, he said.
Ramli said they were doing their best to solve cases with 10,848 investigation papers that led to prosecutions this year.
"The era of advanced technology is surely a challenging one and this requires commitment on our end.
"We expect the overall number of commercial crime cases this year to increase and surpass the amount of cases reported in 2023."
He said the challenge was for police to intensify its efforts to curb commercial crime cases in the country.
Ramli urged the public to also step up and help them in their bid to prevent such cases from occurring.
He said in this aspect, the public must prioritise keeping up to date on the latest modus operandi of scam syndicates so they do not become victims.