Malaysia is seeing an increase in cryptocurrency investment scams, and authorities warn that more experts and older people are being targeted.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Research Director, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, said in a March 17 report that older investors, especially those over the age of 60, are extremely cautious and should avoid rushing to crypto investments.
Ramri highlighted a recent case in which a 74-year-old lost tens of millions of ringgits after falling into fraud.
Some victims explained that buying multiple cryptocurrency coins (worth hundreds of thousands of ringgits) would guarantee a great profit, but in reality, “no investment is made, it’s purely a scam.”
Beyond crypto fraud, telephone fraud remains another major concern. Cryptographers, whether financial regulators, banks, or even law enforcement, often become trustworthy authorities and trick victims into handing over money.
Ramri warned locals to be wary of fraudulent calls that are pretending to be authorities, stressing that legitimate bodies, such as police, tax offices and central banks, are not operating through multi-stage calls bouncing between different sectors.
“There are no phones that start with courier companies and connect to the police, banks, or audit departments.
Ramri attributed the surge to rapid technological advances, making the fraud scheme more sophisticated.
You might like it too: Malaysian anti-corruption agencies are leveraging blockchain and AI to combat fraud
Scammers are increasingly leveraging AI-based tools and deepfark technology to more convince the schemes, often by authorities and legitimate projects. Experts warn that this trend is likely to continue.
Malaysian authorities are also turning to AI and blockchain technology to combat financial crime, in order to use these tools to enhance fraud detection and track illegal transactions more effectively.
“As a law-abiding citizen, don’t be afraid and don’t fall into these scams. You can fall into millions of scams,” Ramli said, adding that many fraud operations are run from luxury condominiums in densely populated areas such as Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
Despite the growing threat, authorities have made some progress in tackling the issue, with JSJK making 23,000 arrests in connection with the fraud syndicate last year.
Beyond investment fraud, Malaysia is also struggling with an increase in illegal Bitcoin mining operations. As previously reported by crypto.news, authorities have discovered cases where miners illegally draw electricity and sacrificed the country’s electricity grid with hundreds of millions of losses.
read more: Illegal Bitcoin mining operations explode in Malaysia
Discover more from Earlybirds Invest
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
