Every day we are often presented with various cases of online fraud. As technology progresses, which is getting increasingly advanced, the techniques and methods scammers use to trap victims also keep evolving. Every day there are always some cases of online fraud involving the public.
Data from the Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department (JSJK) reported that are for commercial crime and cybercrime cases, according to the number of investigation papers, show an alarming trend.
Cybercrime can be defined as an act of harming someone’s finance and security. This kind of crime is conducted using computers and internet networks. Examples of cybercrime include computer fraud, financial scams, financial crimes, and advertisement fraud. This type of crime has happened frequently in Malaysia lately and was the focus of this Part 1.
The number of investigation papers showed a significant increase from 12,798 cases in 2016 to 18,435 cases in 2021, with an increase of 5,637 over the six years. The year 2018 recorded the fewest cybercrime cases, with 10,753 cases. On average, 13,790 cases occurred annually from 2016 to 2021.
It will be alarming as it is feared that more innocent Malaysians will become victims because of the actions of some irresponsible individuals that exploit the naivety of the victims that are not updated with the trends of online scam activities.
Meanwhile, commercial crime or known as a white-collar crime. This type of crime is committed in professional settings like government and business. Examples of white-collar crime include embezzlement, financial crime, copyright infringement, and others.
On the other hand, commercial crime recorded almost twice the number of cybercrimes from 2016 until 2021. We can assume that commercial crime was more severe than cybercrime in Malaysia. On average, 29,589 cases of commercial crime happened in Malaysia yearly from 2016 until 2021, higher than on average 13,790 cases of cybercrime in the same period.
The year 2016 recorded the highest year of commercial crime cases, with 32,948, while 25,594 cases in 2918 for the lowest number of cases recorded.
Source: Commercial Crime Investigation Section (CCIS), March 2022
In terms of total losses due to cybercrime, there was an increase of RM239,531,609 in 2016, followed by RM266,957,862 in 2017, RM398,617,147 in 2018, declining to RM497,926 in 2019, rising sharply to RM413,653,962 in 2020 and slightly decreasing in 2021 with RM403, 825,846.71. On average, RM287,180.726 money losses due to cybercrime in Malaysia.
While on the other hand, the losses caused by commercial crime were more alarming compared to cybercrime, with the highest losses recorded in 2018 at RM23,927,045,190. The lowest losses were in the year 2016, with RM2,026,874,111.
On average, during the six years from 2016 until 2021, Malaysia suffered an average loss of around RM2 billion per year due to commercial crime.
Source: Commercial Crime Investigation Section (CCIS), March 2022
E-commerce and telecommunication fraud syndicates are among the two highest types of cybercrime reported according to investigation papers and modus operandi from 2016 to 2021. E-commerce fraud recorded 6,448 cases in 2016, slightly down the following year with 5,959. It continued to plunge to 3,326 cases and remained stagnant at 3,519.
However, in 2020, 5,995 cases of e-commerce fraud were reported in Malaysia and continued to increase to 9,575 cases in 2021. While for telecommunication fraud syndicates, the number of cases recorded annually is not as alarming as e-commerce fraud syndicates, with 1,987 cases in 2016, 4,177 in 2017, 4,963 cases in 2018, 5,750 cases in 2019, 5,995 cases in 2020 and rising to 6,300 cases in 2021.
The cybercrime that recorded the lowest cases was intellectual property fraud involving (CD/VCD/DVD), pornographic material fraud syndicate and fraud 233, Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA).
*The Malay Version of this article is currently under review at e-Jendela Dewan Ekonomi, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, June 2023. Researchers also would like to thank the Criminal Investigation Department (JSJK), Bukit Aman, for providing this data to the authors.
About the Author
Rashid Ating. Researcher in the Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya and Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), Universiti Malaya (UM).
