By Gordon Yap Chun Kuang – February 27, 2023
KAJANG: Investment scam is an illegal trick that aimed to get money from people. Usually, investment scams will give people money but over a long period of time, people will need to pay back with the same value or even higher value.
According to the report done by Mohamed Basyir in 2021, the data collected from 1 January 2017 to 20 June 2021 shows that there are 67,552 cyber-crime cases happened during this period and the amount of investment cases accounted for 6.273 cases.
The other statistics provided by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), show that it received 1,800 complaints and reports related to the investment scam in the first nine months of 2022.
Based on the statistics that we obtained, it shows that the amount of investment scams increases rapidly in these few years. Hence, a Vox pop interview is conducted at Sungai Long to test the understanding of the people about investment scams in Malaysia.
Knowledge is the king
Lee Zhi Ying says without investment knowledge will easily be scammed.
Lee Zhi Ying, currently a 21-year-old corporate communication student from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) mentioned she realises the number of investment scams on social media increased in these few years. This situation can be understood since social media become more popular in these few years and this provide chances for the scammers to spread investment scams through social media.
When asked about the factors that lead to the increase in investment scams, Lee Zhi Ying believed that one of the main factors is lacking knowledge in the investment field. This will lead to the people do not know the way to identify the authenticity of investment and the proper way to start the investment. However, the method is just simple and easy. “We can justify the authenticity of the investment online such as the official website of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM).” Lee Zhi Ying mentioned.
Greedy, the key to scam
The humanity of greed is the other main factor of the investment scams increased rapidly these few years in Malaysia. “You will never be able to refuse the attraction of money.” The 23-year-old software engineering student from UTAR, Low Wei said during the interview session. He explained that everyone like to earn the money in the quickest way, and this is why people will easily fall into the trap of the investment scam.
Low Wei mentioned every human is greedy and likes money
“You may not believe it at the beginning, but when you really get a large amount of money in a short period of time, you will start to believe it and comes out with the result that you are cheated.” Low Wei calls this the most common technique used by scammers. Hence, he suggests that people invest in a proper way so that the people can track the money flow. Other than that, Low Wei shared that people could do the proper research before they begin to invest like what he did with his friend because this can help to protect their rights.
People has no choice
Nicol Yong Ting Wei mentioned inflation of groceries leads to investment scam
“Everything is getting more expensive, and people failed to earn money in a proper way, thus they will either become the scammer or be scammed.” This is the opinion of Nicol Yong Ting Wei, a 19-year-old student studying software engineering at UTAR. The people wish to earn quick money from the investment to lighten the burden of their life, but it will just worsen the matter once they realised, they have been cheated.
“To invest, the people might borrow money from relatives or use the money that they save for emergency purposes, once being scammed, nothing will leave.” Based on this situation, Nicol Yong Ting Wei suggests people meet physically with the investor and sign up the contract to protect their rights.
Observation helps realize scams
The other interviewee, 21-year-old Chua Jun Quan from the Faculty of Accountancy and Management of UTAR agrees that social media is the most common platform that happens with investment scams and he shares his experience with us. “We can identify investment scams by observing people’s attitude.” Chua Jun Quan said so. As further explanation, Chua Jun Quan mentioned if the people around him shared something unusual and weird, mostly he has been scammed.
Chua Jun Quan shares his experience that he nearly become the victims of investment scam.
Chua Jun Quan said that he was nearly become the victim of an investment scam last year. “The scammer hacked my Instagram account and posted that I earned a large amount of money after making an investment.” However, Chua Jun Quan solve this situation successfully by resetting his social media account’s password and clarify the post wasn’t posted by himself.
“The relationships between people will become worse.” This is the response from Chua Jun Quan when asked what the effect of the investment scam is due to the increasing cases of investment scams, people will no longer believe each other. Thus, he advises the government to use social media to spread more information about the scams to the people to raise their awareness of scams and alert the scammers that they are already being observed.
Platform is the key of control
Soh Mi Er says the technician can help to solve investment scams
Soh Mi Er, a 19-year-old student from UTAR Foundation in Art said by having more technicians in the investment field, the situation can be controlled. “The professional technician will help to monitor the platform and avoid people from being scammed.” However, she says people played an important role in this situation which is they can share the method of investment scams to their friends once they realised it to avoid more people from being scammed.
Based on the interviewee’s responses, the investment scam is no longer far from us and everyone is possible to be the victim. Thus, we need to try our best to share the information about investment scams and get ourselves prepared because this is the only way to prevent us from being victim.
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