PETALING JAYA: There has been a surge in investment scams advertised on TikTok, recording a 90% jump since 2021 involving losses totaling RM15 million.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf confiirmed that these scams have “grown steadily” on the short video platform since 2021, as quoted by the New Straits Times.
13 cases were recorded in 2021, 27 cases in 2022, 59 cases in 2023 and another 131 cases between January and October this year.
“As for losses, we recorded RM410,000 in 2021 followed by RM1.28 million in 2022 and RM7.25 million last year,“ he was quoted as saying.
So far in 2024, a total of 65 men and 66 women were conned by these advertisements.
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Ramli said the highest number of victims based on age group are between 31 to 40 years old at 23% while those aged 21 to 30 years old (21.4%) are the second highest.
The number of victims in the older age groups are lesser such as victims aged between 41-50 years old with a recorded rate of 17.5%, 51 to 60 year old victims at 15.9%, 61 to 70 year olds at 15.1%.
The youngest age group recorded is 11 to 20 years old, with a recorded rate of 7.1%.
“54% of the total number of victims were from the private sector while 9.9% were retirees followed by civil servants (7.6%) and students (4.6%),“ he was also quoted as saying.
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Ramli reminded the public to refer to the Securities Commission (SC) to verify the authenticity of an investment scheme.
“Please remember that almost every investment scheme offered on social media platforms are scams,” Ramli was quoted as saying.
