KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 — The Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) today revealed that an average of RM2 billion is lost annually to white-collar crimes.
Federal CCID Director Commissioner Datuk Seri Mohd Zakaria Ahmad said telecommunication scams (Macau scam) and e-commerce fraud topped the list as the biggest contributors of cyber-crimes.
“Sometimes it goes up or down a bit, but on average the losses are estimated to be that high every year,” he was quoted saying by local English-daily The Star today.
Recounting how he had been targeted by scammers previously, Zakaria said he was perplexed as to how the scammers obtained his personal details.
“Even I have received those (scam) calls. It is strange as to how they got my details because the information was correct.
"How did they know this information and who gave it to them? This is the problem. We also don’t know about the sale of data,” he said.
He said police are concerned about such data leaks and have advised financial institutions on measures to curb such activities.
Zakaria also revealed that many phone numbers used in such scams were found to be pre-paid numbers, but personal details such as MyKad or passport numbers of the callers were incomplete when investigations were carried out.
“The government has already said that you need to register to purchase a prepaid number. But many do not,” he said, adding that the “loose” process made investigations more difficult.
Meanwhile, on the recently concluded Ops Mule, Zakaria reportedly said 501 arrests were made nationwide throughout the two week operation, which ended July 31.
The operation was aimed at cracking down on mule bank accounts used by syndicates to funnel money for their illicit criminal activities.
“We are becoming more aggressive now. If we can’t get to the main players, we will start with the account holders,” he said.
