RM1.224bil lost to online crime this year until October - Anwar

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has lost RM1.224 billion to online crime between January and October this year, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today.

He said this included losses due to online scams, telecommunications fraud, e-finance crimes, love scams, e-commerce fraud, non-existent loans and non-existent investments.

Among actions taken to address this, he said, included arrests and seizures targeting syndicates that offer unlicensed money lending or 'Ah Long' loan shark services, which impose high interest rates.

He told the Dewan Rakyat that seven licensed money-lending companies have been raided for violating Regulation 15A(b) of the Money Lenders (Control and Licensing) (Amendment) Regulations 2024.

"The problem lies in the existence of different roles played by money lenders, debt collectors, customer service officers, money mule agents, mule accounts, paint-splashing agents and leaflet and banner distributors.

"This is indeed a serious issue because from an Asean perspective, the total losses caused by online crimes amount to US$64 billion."

He was responding to a question from Suhaizan Kaiat (PH-Pulai), who raised the issue of increasing online crime cases, and the measures taken against unlicensed money-lending outlets and online financial fraud.

Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, said a total of 136 investigation papers were opened, of which 25 had been charged for various offences.

He said enforcement efforts were being focused on licensed money lenders and pawnbrokers registered under the Housing and Local Government Ministry, through multi-agency coordinated action including by the police, the Home Ministry, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Bank Negara Malaysia and the National Financial Crime Centre.

Meanwhile, Anwar said the police's Semak Mule portal has recorded complaints of 181,628 phone numbers, 222,092 bank accounts, and 1,395 companies suspected to be involved in online crime.

"The Semak Mule portal has been a significant help, with a total of 32,066,000 searches conducted, resulting in 22,200,984 positive responses.

"This means there were efforts to transfer funds to mule accounts, but many cases were intercepted thanks to the proactive use of the Semak Mule portal, accessible at https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my."

Anwar also added that the government will propose amendments to laws involving financial transactions.

"This includes Section 116D (of the Criminal Procedure Code) passed by Parliament earlier this year, which empowers police officers with the rank of Sergeant or higher to seize or block financial transaction-related matters.

"We will also amend Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act and propose the Online Safety Bill 2024," he added.