Despite numerous warnings and campaigns, online love scam syndicates still prey on people, resulting in significant financial losses for their victims.
Bukit Aman Commercial Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said love scam syndicates typically target individuals by using pictures of attractive men or women to grab their attention.
Ramli said victims were deceived into believing various fabricated stories by the syndicate, such as plans to meet, marriage proposals, or business ventures, once the scammers establish a relationship and become "lovers" with them.
He said the scammers would then fabricate stories about "problems" that would require the victims to transfer money to designated bank accounts.
"The emotional manipulation techniques used in these scams cause victims to consistently follow all instructions given by the syndicates," he told the "New Straits Times".
He said technological development had created new and dangerous scam tactics that caused serious financial repercussions.
Ramli said some characteristics of love scams include being too quick to give gifts or valuable items, even though the relationship is new.
"Members of such syndicates always avoid meeting their victims, with all communication conducted online without any face-to-face interaction and using bank accounts under someone else's name to receive money," he said.
Important to stay vigilant
Ramli said individuals aged between 41 and 50 were the most common victims last year.
In the first month of 2024, the most common victims were aged 51 to 60 years, with 20 victims.
To combat these cases, Ramli urged the public to stay vigilant and disseminate crime prevention information provided by police through campaigns and social media.
He said 935 investigation papers were opened for love scam cases involving RM43,920,299.01 in total last year.
Until Jan 31, this year, Ramli said 69 investigation papers had been opened, involving RM1,834,794.95 in total.
Scammers' tactics
Meanwhile, from a criminologist's perspective, Help University Institute of Crime and Criminology director Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar said scammers were adept at psychological manipulation and exploiting the vulnerabilities of their victims, including their weaknesses, low awareness and susceptibility.
Akhbar said the scammers continued to devise new tactics, leveraging technology and exploiting gaps in the financial system.
He said the post-Covid-19 pandemic era of digital connectivity had provided fertile ground for cybercriminals, with cyber scams becoming increasingly prevalent in Malaysia.
"Phishing emails, malware and other online scams aim to gain unauthorised access to sensitive information such as bank accounts, passwords, and personal data," he said.
To obtain confidence and obedience, Akhbar said scammers sometimes impersonated influential figures.
"These strategies frequently rely on (manipulating) people's feelings, and emotions and (creating a) sense of urgency to deceive them into acting in the scammers' favour," he said.
Reasons people still fall
for love scams
He said that among the reasons why people still fall for love scams are the persistence of online love scammers, the desire for quick wealth and the belief that one can never have enough.
"Every individual is susceptible to becoming a victim given that scamming remains a lucrative avenue for making quick and easy money.
"Scammers target people from all walks of life, including tech-savvy individuals, pensioners, wealthy individuals and businessmen," said Akhbar, who is also the president of the Malaysian Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
Akhbar said law enforcement agencies must continuously adapt their approach to effectively combat scam syndicates.
"Police and cybersecurity must have enough resources to counter online frauds, which are becoming more sophisticated and complex.
"There must be greater expertise and awareness about cybersecurity threats to address the matter, which involves having experts from various fields," he said.
The National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) recorded losses of RM1.34 billion in 33,234 online crime cases from Jan 1 to Dec 8 last year.
Recently, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said the losses involved in the love scam amounted to RM41 million during the same period.
