CHINESE people are more susceptible to scams as they have been drilled from young to fear enforcement authorities, especially police, several complaints and public bureaus of political parties said.

Their vernacular education as well as the poor command of other non-Chinese languages can also be contributing factors, they said.

Gerakan public services and complaints bureau chief Henry Teoh said the Chinese are gullible because of their upbringing and education.

“Chinese parents always tell their children that when they misbehave, police will come for them,” Teoh told The Malaysian Insight.

“This is buried in their subconscious. So whenever they receive a call with the caller claiming to be police or other enforcement agencies, they get scared.

“While they may be highly educated, when they receive such calls, they easily panic and fall for the scam.”

Teoh said when people receive calls from so-called authorities, they should keep calm and talk about it to others, instead of following the instructions given.

Many Chinese who receive such calls, however, tend to lodge police reports, and that is why data show more Chinese people get scammed, he said.

“But there are other races too, and their numbers are just as high, but they don’t report it.”

Teoh said Gerakan has been trying to create awareness but the public seemed to dismiss them and think they are immune to scams.

Johor police chief commissioner Kamarul Zaman Mamat said scams are rampant in the state, and the victims are often Chinese.

Yew Jia Haur, Federal Territories DAP public complaints bureau chairman said the language barrier also makes the Chinese fall for scams easily.

“They also don’t want to involve their families, so anything that can be settled privately by money, they would rather do that,” Yew said.

Those who fall for these scams also range in age from teenagers to senior citizens, he said.

Other races may be more vigilant because they may check with friends and family members who are civil servants, he added.

MCA national public service and complaints bureau deputy chief Low Guo Nan was also targeted by a scammer impersonating an officer from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, demanding RM630,000 in 2019 over alleged drug trafficking and money-laundering.

Fortunately, he was alert.

Low said scammers do not care about race, only money.

“The data police have are based on those who report such cases.”

Low, who is also Perak MCA’s public service and complaints bureau chief, said the bureau has received lots of calls for help in the first half of this year.

“We encourage the victims to report the crime first but they think it is useless as the money cannot be recovered.”

He said Malaysia should take proactive steps to intercept scammers rather than merely educating the public.

“Other countries intercept these calls and try to find the criminals. This of course requires cooperation from other departments and the banks.”

According to Bukit Aman, a total of 98,607 online fraud cases involving losses totalling RM3.3 billion were reported nationwide from 2017 until last year.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department assistant director (telecommunications criminal investigation) Rozeni Ismail said during that period, more than 30,000 individuals were detained and from the number, 25,000 were charged in court.

He said most cases involved the Macau scam, online sales and purchases, non-existent money loans, and love scams.

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur police chief Azmi Abu Kassim said online fraud cases such as the Macau scam, love scam and e-purchases in the capital had gone up even though the country was still coping with Covid-19.

He said a total of 4,340 cases with losses of RM665 million were recorded last year compared with 4,062 cases with a loss of RM637 million in 2020.

It was also reported that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had blocked more than 1.6 billion calls and 1,500 suspicious websites. – August 3, 2022.