POLICE have opened five investigation papers on fraudulent e-voucher offers involving losses of more than RM500,000.

Royal Malaysia Police secretary Noorsiah Saaduddin said the investigations found that the e-voucher offers were made through an app introduced in 2020 for the purchase of goods and payment of services using e-wallets.

She said consumers who wanted to use the app would need to deposit a certain amount of money, and they would be given savings of up to 50% for each purchase in addition to receiving reward points that could be redeemed through the purchase of goods or in cash.

“In the early stages, the transactions and redemption of reward points via the app proceeded smoothly.

“However, problems arose at the end of last year when consumers failed to make purchases or redeem their points,” she said in a statement today, adding that the case is being investigated under section 420 of the penal code.

Noorsiah said the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry last October issued a statement that companies involved in such activities would be investigated under sections 4(1) and 27B of the Direct Sales and Anti-Pyramid Scheme Act 1993.

On Friday, the media reported that about 100 police reports had been lodged involving a loss of nearly RM5 million after more than 100 people had been duped into joining an online rewards scheme that offered 50% discounts through a dubious company that used names of famous people, royalty, former government officers and religious leaders to attract their victims. – Bernama, February 6, 2023.