RM57.73 million lost to eCommerce scams between Jan to Oct 2021

The Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department reported that there have been a total of 8,162 cases of eCommerce fraud with losses amounting to RM57.73 million nationwide, as of 31 October 2021. The amount increased since last year, as there were a total of 5,848 cases in 2020—involving a total loss of RM35.88 million.

Investigating Officer and Assistant Superintendent Mohd Sa’adon Sabirin said that the reported cases have “continued to increase”. In 2018, there were only 3,318 cases involving losses amounting to RM22.39 million.

But the situation worsened in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The self-quarantine period during the year resulted in a rise in online shopping, and with that also came the increase in eCommerce fraud cases.

“These statistics involve those who are cheated and file reports, but I believe that out there, there are still those who do not lodge police reports,” the Assistant Superintendent said.

The increase of eCommerce fraud cases in 2021 makes sense with Malaysia’s extended CMCO. Personally, I’ve also noticed that I’ve been spending a lot of money on online shopping platforms, and it’s mostly because we weren’t able to go out to actual retail stores for a pretty long time. There’s even a nifty script that can automatically calculate the total amount you’ve on Shopee… if you want to do that to yourself.

However, it’s also upsetting that people are still being scammed, specifically through online shopping schemes. Here’s a reminder to not give out your personal information, or be too generous in sharing your personal data as the scammers will use it against you. If you’re shopping on eCommerce platforms, you’ll also have to look out for fake online stores that sell counterfeit items and here’s how you can spot them.

The Assistant Superintendent also urged victims of eCommerce scams to lodge police reports to enable information and data related to the “scammers” to be collected for further action. He explained that information like telephone numbers and bank accounts received from fraud victim reports would be updated in the “Semak Mule” application to enable the public to check on the seller’s information before making a transaction.

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