According to the State of Scam Report 2024, about 70% of scam victims did not report their cases to the authorities
CAN anyone visualise how much RM54 billion looks like? No?
Well, imagine building a skyscraper half-a-km high, aesthetically designed by a supposedly ultra-high-class architect to reflect Malaysia’s complicated mix of cultures and history, much like the world-renowned Petronas Twin Towers.
Now, imagine building 16 of these towers — that’s what RM54 billion looks exactly like.
Sixteen uniquely-expansive-towers, or eight pairs of Petronas Twin Towers could be built smack in the middle of Kuala Lumpur with the same amount of money Malaysians lose to scammers in the past year alone.
(For the record, the two Petronas towers were built in 1993 and completed in 1997, at the cost of RM6.7 billion, becoming the tallest skyscrapers in the world then, and maintained the status as the tallest twin structures since.)
The colossal scammed amount, all in one year, is just a shade off the largest financial fraud the whole planet has ever seen — the 1Malaysia Development Bhd embezzlement case — which put one former prime minister behind bars, made one fat scammer-banker on-the-run insanely rich, and left Malaysians with an inter-generational debt of RM55 billion.
Less than a month ago, the police has already raised the alarm by highlighting that Malaysians have lost nearly half a billion ringgit to phone scams, in the past three years.
Bukit Aman Commercial
Crime Investigation Department on Aug 12 revealed that a total of 8,011 phone scam cases were recorded over the past three years, with losses amounting to RM441 million. Even then most of us were shocked, thinking of how outrageous it was.
If RM441 million was already outrageous, then RM54 billion loss is surely, catastrophic.
What is more alarming is that according to the State of Scam Report 2024, about 70% of scam victims did not report their cases to the authorities. One of the main reasons was these victims were getting more sceptical regarding the effectiveness of the reporting process.
Based on experience of a relative, the victim has chosen to keep quiet because he was too embarrassed to admit his stupidity in allowing himself to fall for the scam. He was devastated with tens of thousand ringgit of savings lost, of course, but keeping it out of public or the authorities’ knowledge is another matter of keeping his pride intact.
Scams have upended livelihoods and actually ended lives. Malaysia does not have a current data to link suicide cases to scams, but last year, suicide incidence in the country increased by 10% from 2022 to 1,087 cases. And high on the list of causes among adults was financial crises.
The police have highlighted that the majority of scam victims in Malaysia are professional adults and the more fragile ones are pensioners. For them, what more an urgent financial crisis than being scammed out of your savings?
The lack of awareness on keeping vigil and avoiding gullibility when one runs into questionable opportunities or personal endorsement offered is not the only aspect of the scam that should be tackled.
There is a question of infrastructure and tools used by scammers that could and should be disrupted.
Last year, CNN in a special report focusing on scamming cases in the US, claimed that these scams were primarily operated by gangsters from the South-East Asia region, namely in the “no-man’s land” border between Thailand and Myanmar.
They even shown footages of the place and even interviewed one of the former scammers, who himself a victim forced to scam out for his life, and detailed out the telecommunication companies (telcos) used to carry out their operations.
The only thing preventing the US authorities from taking action against these telcos was jurisdiction, claimed CNN.
Rich coming from a country who has raided other countries and killed millions of innocents without any jurisdictional rights — but the point here is that Malay- sian authorities wouldn’t have any jurisdictional issues if they choose to investigate the local telcos being used by local syndicates to scam Malaysians.
It was clear that the ubiquitous telco devices are being abused by these syndicates. The police have frequently been reported raiding these scamming dens and seized phones and computers etc being used in the scam.
The scammers — normally foreign victims forced or extorted to become scammers — would be normally caught but missing were always the gangsters who masterminded these operations, and the telco operators.
It is clear from the evidence presented — the handphones, phone lines and laptops — that telco infrastructure was abused, but the telcos themselves were never dragged into the picture.
It is not that complicated. The modus operandi is well-known.
Each call has an origin, where it is from and to where it was addressed to.
Scammers can use out-of-this- world technology to scramble their calls but the telcos — owner of the infrastructure — would have the ultimate knowledge of the network to trace these calls.
Worse-case scenario, if it is scrambled, the telcos then could figure out that it is up to no good. Therein, it can be nipped.
Telco just need to be incentivised to take action. Or forced. Similarly with the banks, another vehicle used to scam off the victims.
The government should be firmer to incentivise these telcos and banks.
But how to incentivise the government?
Well, money matters. Put it this way — in Budget 2024 the government allocated RM58 billion to be used by the Education Ministry (MOE) for the whole year.
Look at the list of what MOE should’ve achieved with its allocation and you’ll realise that RM54 billion is one hell of a fund to be benefitted by the rakyat.
In fact, if one is in the government, one will definitely push to set-up a full-fledged brand-new ministry just to handle these scamming schemes!
It could sure bring an intergenerational and national benefits much bigger than using government machineries to monitor news organisations writing on Zionists, BlackRock or Global Infrastructure Partners.
- Asuki Abas is the editor of The Malaysian Reserve.
- This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition