With the growing numbers of cases reported on cybercrime, the Police Family Association (PERKEP) from Ipoh’s District Police Headquarters (IPD) together with Pertubuhan Wanita Prihatin Perak (PWPP) conducted a talk on cybercrime on October 26 at Perak’s Mes Pegawai Kanan Polis recently.
Officiated by the chairperson of PWPP herself, Datin Normah Hanum Ibrahim who strongly believes that it is important for the public to know about the danger of cybercrimes.
“All the sweet talks and empty promises have made women the victim of internet scam especially on social media websites,” said Normah.
Together at the talk was Crime Analyst, Kamal Affendi Hashim who stated that over 80% of cybercrime victims were women which started with victims meeting the scammers on social media websites before exchanging phone numbers.
“These days, people spend more time on social media to socialise and scammers like to put interesting photos with the intention to lure potential victims. These naïve women give the scammers money and some even to the extent of borrowing cash from illegal money lenders while not having met the scammer in person,” said Kamal Affendi.
There are also a few cases where victims fell in love and sent nude photos of themselves where it was then used by these criminals to blackmail the victims. These crimes are usually organised and well-planned, causing victims to not only lose their money but also breached their safety and reputations.
“We have a term for this kind of crime. It is widely known as the ‘Love Scam’ and is popular among Africans who usually scam victims through social media networks,” added Affendi.
There are currently three types of cybercrime. One is the syndicate crime where it is conducted by a larger group and have a multi network system; another is the serial crime where there is only one scammer doing the same repetitive routine to trick different victims one at a time and the third ones are other types of individual scams of different modes.
Luqman Hakim
