KUCHING: The Sarawak Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has recorded an additional 133 commercial crime cases in the first four months this year compared to the same period last year.
Police Commissioner Datuk Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri said a total of 885 cases were recorded from Jan 1 to Apr 16.
This is an increase of 17.69 per cent compared to last year’s figure of 752 cases for the same period.
As for financial losses in the same period, the department recorded losses amounting to RM34.3 million this year compared to RM20.7 million for the same period last year.
“The commercial crime category that recorded the highest number of victims are e-commerce scams involving 172 victims and RM1.3 million losses, followed by job scams (103 victims, RM1.8 million losses) and non-existent loan scams (93 victims, RM654,000 losses).
“In addition, phone scams also hooked in 63 victims and caused RM2.8 million losses and investment scams have cheated 60 victims and incurred RM5.3 million losses,” he told a press conference at the media centre of the Sarawak Contingent police headquarters (IPK) this morning.
Despite the alarming figure, Azman said the department’s continuous efforts to curb commercial crimes in the state have resulted in a total of 239 arrests this year.
Azman said a total of 396 people, including cases from the previous year, have been prosecuted in court.
