Be wary when purchasing goods online

Be wary when purchasing goods online

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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 (Bernama) -- The police today advised the public to exercise caution when making purchase transaction through the Internet following the increase in online scam since the past three years.

Assistant chief of the Inspector-General of Police Secretariat (Public Relations), ACP Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, said that during the first 10 months of this year, a total of 1,424 cases, involving losses of RM3.519 million, were reported.

A total of 1,114 cases, involving losses of RM3.124, were reported in 2010 and 551 cases, with losses totalling RM786,000, were reported in 2009, he added.

In a statement issued here Friday, he said most of the cases involved transaction through "mudah.my", with 1,009 transactions and losses of RM1.7 million during the first ten months of this year.

Ramli said the police also received 2,472 reports on online financial fraud since 2008 until October this year, involving losses of about RM19 million.

He said the modus operandi used in the scam was to impersonate a bank or a police officer and to convince the victims to give their bank account numbers with offers of attractive gifts, settlement of credit cards debts or goods auctioned by the Customs.

The victims only realised they had been cheated after finding they had less money in their bank accounts, he added.

He advised those with information on such online scams to contact the Commercial Crime Investigation department secretariat at 03-26163972 during office hours or the operations room at 03-26163999 after office hours. (BERNAMA)