By: Zaki Salleh
Kuala Lumpur: A total of 39% of online purchase fraud cases reported to the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) since 2021 have been linked to transactions that originated on Facebook.
This is followed by Instagram (16%), WhatsApp (13.4%), Telegram (6.3%), Mudah.My (3.7%), Shopee (1.9%), Carousell (1.1%), Lazada (0.9%), WeChat (0.5%), and X (0.1%).
The Director of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of PDRM, Dato’ Sri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, mentioned that the PDRM’s research has also found that e-commerce platform providers have established secure and regulated transaction procedures.
However, victims’ inclination to seek lower prices has driven them to make direct purchases from sellers, bypassing the related e-commerce platforms.
“E-commerce fraud is among the most frequently reported cases, with the number of cases and losses increasing over the past three years, amounting to millions of ringgit. In 2021, a total of 9,499 e-commerce fraud cases were recorded, resulting in losses of RM73 million, and 9,258 cases with losses of RM140 million the previous year.
“As of September this year, 8,868 cases have been recorded, with losses totalling RM163 million,” he stated in a press release.
PDRM’s analysis shows that the annual average number of cases is close to 10,000. According to Ramli Mohamed, the losses have shown a significant annual increase, with losses this year exceeding 55% compared to 2021.
“It is expected that these losses will continue to rise based on the increase in the prices of goods in the current trading system.
Furthermore, e-commerce fraud cases are expected to increase in the coming year as e-commerce platforms become more popular in today’s business transactions,” he added.
