(The Star)KUALA LUMPUR: The police have problems in tracing the criminals involved in cheating the public via phone scams, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said.
This was because 99% of the numbers used to call the victims were fake or had been registered with false personal details, he said.
“In police investigations on the numbers used to call the victims, checks revealed that the addresses of the number owners were false, which hampered their efforts to track down the perpetrators,” he told Hamim Samuri (BN-Ledang).
Chor said the public had been warned through SMS alerts, advertisements and notices to be more cautious of replying to dubious SMS offers.
There is on-going cooperation with Indonesian police because most of the SMSes sent to victims originated from that country, he added.
However, Chor lamented the fact that the victims were drawn by greed into believing that they would get money by participating in fake SMS contests.
He told Er Teck Hwa (DAP-Bakri) that the police recorded 728 cases involving dubious SMS alerts with losses of up to RM1.8mil last year, while 965 cases were reported in 2007 of which victims lost RM2.1mil.
In 2006, 318 cases were reported with losses of RM548,725.27 from the public, he added.
“During the last two years, 55 people were arrested, including 12 women, for their involvement in these scams.
“Among the scams reported were SMS contests involving the Akademi Fantasia show, and brands such as Maxis, Celcom, DiGi, Petronas, Shell, Astro, Power Root and Gang Starz,” he added.
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