POLICE have arrested 8 people on suspicion of running a saving scheme scam, which resulted in victims losing more than RM4.4 million.

Police secretary Noorsiah Saaduddin said six women and two men, ages 31 to 37, were detained on January 27 following raids in four states.

She said various assets were seized including a luxury vehicle, ATM cards, mobile phones and documents believed to be used to commit fraud.

Noorsiah said there were 116 police reports lodged nationwide against the scheme known as ‘sapiza ekstra saving’, with victims alleging they had collectively lost RM4.44 million.

“Preliminary investigations found that the scheme has been active since 2015 by offering savings based on the ‘kutu’ system,” she said in a statement today.

According to Noorsiah, in 2021, the scheme started offering new saving plans of as low as RM250 to RM20,000 for a period of between two and five months.

“The new plans also promised profits of 15-40%, but, since October 2022, the scheme operator had failed to pay out,” she said.

Noorsiah reminded the public to be vigilant and to carry out checks with official sources, including the Semak Mule application, Bank Negara Malaysia’s alert list, and the Securities Commission. – Bernama, February 12, 2023.