By Ling Hui
KUCHING, June 16: Unauthorised transaction fraud victims must make sure their police reports are open for police investigation (‘buka untuk siasatan polis’), not just “buka untuk siasatan”.
This is the advice by Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Public Complaints Bureau (PCB) chief Milton Foo when he pointed out that without the specification, the police are not obligated to carry out any investigation of the reported fraud cases.
He said this after going through the information provided by those who had sought help from PCB after losing money to unauthorised online transfer scams.
Foo added that most of the victims were not aware of the significance of such wordings in their police reports, which led to their reports not prompting serious action by the police.
“Without the proper words ‘buka untuk siasatan polis’, the police report is meant to only assist in the banks’ investigation. Members of the public must take note of this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Foo urged those who had fallen victim to the same fraudulent scheme to lodge their complaints also with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
He said this would bring to the attention of the higher authorities the seriousness of this fraud phenomenon in Sarawak.
In terms of measures, he proposed that BNM instruct all local banks to immediately investigate related cases and freeze the reported mule accounts which the money was transferred into.
“Secondly, BNM should apply stringent criteria or requirements for opening new accounts. BNM should also from time to time audit all accounts opened by onboarding customers.
“If a mule account is detected, penalties must be imposed on the bank. This is to reduce scam incidents using mule accounts by holding the bank responsible,” said Foo in a press conference at SUPP headquarters here today.
He also welcomed the statement by Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department (CCID) director Kamarudin Md Din on May 11 supporting the blacklisting of mule account owners so that they would not be able to open new bank accounts. — DayakDaily
