KUCHING: As today is Valentine’s Day, the public are strongly reminded not to be bewitched by the beauty or handsomeness of a person on social media.
Sarawak Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Supt Maria Rasid when asked to comment on the issue of love scams, said postings about being lonely or desperate for a partner on social media, can easily grab a suspects’ attention and are fuel for scammers.
“Aside from that, the public should also not be easily fooled by any praise or persuasion from alleged friends on social media.
“Do not be too prone to believe that you are being offered to invest in a project, gifts, jewellery, money and other things from social media friends allegedly from abroad,” she said.
She added that the public must be very careful and pay close attention if there is any communication involving money.
This is because the suspects are entering this stage to achieve their main objective, which is to get money easily by cheating potential victims.
Hence, the public are continuously reminded to never disclose or provide their banking or financial information on social media.
Maria said the public can always contact the CCID Scam Response Centre at 03-2610 1559 and 03-2610 1599 or send a Whatsapp message to the CCID Infoline at 013-211 1222 for advice or to channel information regarding online crime cases.
On the number of love scams reported in Sarawak, she said the department had recorded four love scam cases involving RM128,000 in January this year.
“Usually, the victims of love scams would be acquainted with the suspects through social media such as Facebook, Instagram, matchmaking sites and others.
“After that, the suspects will contact the victim via Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger to profess their love to them and would come to Malaysia bearing gifts for the victims and to marry them.
“Once the victims are enchanted, the syndicate disguised as authorities at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), will call the victim to inform that their lover was detained by the authorities for carrying large amounts of foreign currency,” she explained.
Maria pointed out that the victims would be asked to make a payment to an unknown individual’s account (mule account) seemingly to release their lover from the authorities’ custody.
After making the payment without any suspicions, the victims would no longer be able to get a hold of their alleged lovers as they (suspects) have already achieved their objective – to get money easily by cheating.
She added that to date, a total of 66 mule accounts have been charged under Section 37 (1) of the Minor Offences Ordinance 1958 for being involved in scam cases in Sarawak.
From Jan 1 to Feb 13 this year, two mule accounts involving love scam cases, have been charged in Miri and among the penalties imposed is a RM500 fine.
