KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysia Police revealed that losses suffered by online fraud victims aged 50 and above is the highest compared to other age groups.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said that throughout 2022 until last year, 59,974 individuals had fallen victim to online fraud and scams, and of that total, 11,157 or 18.6 per cent of them were among individuals aged 50 and above.
He said a similar trend was also recorded this year as from the 33,549 cases recorded as of Dec 15, victims aged 50 and above numbered 8,022 or 24 per cent.
“Losses from online fraud cases recorded for 2022 and 2023 was approximately RM2 billion.
“Even though the number of victims in this age group (50 years and above) is low compared to other age groups, the losses for this age group in 2022 and 2023 are over RM900 million or 44 per cent of the total losses,” he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Ramli said the losses involving victims aged 50 and above recorded so far this year had also reached RM780 million or 54 per cent of the total losses of RM1.45 billion.
“This finding explains why the older group is a ‘quality target’ for fraud syndicates and therefore they are reminded to always be vigilant with online fraud tactics.
“The police also call for information on commercial crimes, especially the modus operandi of online fraud, to be shared with all groups, especially our parents, family members, acquaintances, and neighbours and to make ‘scammer’ a topic of discussion to avoid becoming victims,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ramli said police also recorded 6,909 cases of e-commerce fraud involving losses worth RM62 million between January and Dec 15 this year.
Ramli said fraud stemming from advertisements via Facebook recorded the highest number of cases with 3,457 cases followed by WhatsApp (1,168 cases), TikTok (800 cases) and Telegram (771 cases).
