FRAUDULENT investment syndicates cheated nearly a million people out of almost RM4 billion in the first 11 months of the year, said police.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Amar Singh Ishar Singh said 947,301 people were conned out of more than RM3.8 billion between January and November, compared with 190,750 people and RM845,000 losses during the same period last year.

Most of the victims, he said, were taken in by the promise of high returns on their investments.

“The fraud cases detected by the police were for commodity investment, trading, gold, foreign exchange, shares and tenders,”he said in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.  

 “We want to advise the public not to be easily duped by offers of unverified investments, “ he said, adding that most of the cons were in shares, gold and bitcoin trading. 

He said the public should not be tricked by promises of large and quick returns and they should verify the profile of the investment company with Bank Negara Malaysia before writing a cheque.

He also advised people to stay away from investment schemes that appeared shady or were too good to to be true. – Bernama, December 19, 2017.