Kuala Lumpur, 11 August 2021: The Vehicle Theft Reduction Council of Malaysia (VTREC) successfully conducts a Facebook Live session entitled “Kerugian Billion Ringgit ‘Fraud & Scams’ Berkaitan Kenderaan” as a part of a public engagement and awareness initiative to inform, educate, and warn the public of the emerging trend of Auto Frauds & Scams crimes on the online platform that has come to the fore these days.
The panellists’ line-up includes YDH DSP Tuan Mohd Syafiq Jinuin Abdullah from The Cyber Unit and Multimedia of Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), Bukit Aman and VTREC’s Co-ordinator, Puan Mas Tina Abdul Hamid. Much to our anticipation, unfortunately, YDH DSP Tuan Mohd Syafiq could not join the session due to inevitable circumstances and regrettably apologised for his absence and conveyed his trust to Puan Mas Tina to lead the session without him.
Puan Mas Tina Abdul Hamid responding to questions from the live stream
The 30 minutes session begins with Puan Mas Tina answering the question on Auto Frauds & Scams definition. According to Puan Mas Tina, this crime occurs when the so-called seller is a fraudster who scams the victims. Fraudsters use every tactic possible to go against the law. These tactics also involve few different levels, starting from advertising, pricing, bank loan, or overall transaction scamming. In the next question, Puan Mas Tina was asked about the number of losses that have been incurred from frauds & scams. As stated by the data shared by the CCID, for the first 6 months (Jan-Jun) 2021, 669 cases have been recorded and the losses are about RM 7.5 million, whereas in 2020, 707 cases were recorded, causing about RM 5.7 million losses due to frauds & scams. The number of cases in the first half of 2021 almost matches the full-year number of cases in 2020 which is very concerning.
Puan Mas Tina has also responded to one of the questions from the live stream questioning what triggered this crime to be rampant these days as it is not something new which she makes a riposte mentioning the rise of statistics is due to the ongoing pandemic. Scam sellers are taking advantage of the heavy use of online transactions to conduct their shameful crimes. This has been directly or indirectly added to the rise of cases. Not to mention, the fake claims against insurance companies, over claims against the actual total parts being repaired and fake injury claims due to accidents. This depicts that the criminals are getting sophisticated and creative with their modus operandi in addition to the extremely illogical offering that is below the market price.
“…criminals are getting sophisticated and creative with their modus operandi in addition to the extremely illogical offering that is below the market price.” said Puan Mas Tina.
Some participants seek the proper procedure for their issues. One of them is asking the mechanism to check the authenticity of the registration card. Puan Mas Tina suggested visiting any JPJ branches and bring the original registration card. JPJ will assist and examine the status. If it is a duplicate, JPJ will clarify the further step. Puan Mas Tina also advises a participant whose car is missing after trusting one of his contacts to help sell it. According to Puan Mas Tina, this can be classified as vehicle theft by a third party and had advised following the 3 steps which are to lodge a police report (with details of the vehicle, details of suspects, communication details with a suspect), inform the insurance company of the similar issue, and for the last step, if the car in indebtedness, one need to inform the bank as well.
Other than that, Puan Mas Tina also highlighted the definition of a clone car in response to a question of whether it is considered a fraud. A cloned car is a fabricated car used on the road that resembles the legal car which appears to have the same chassis number, registration number and the same identity. The syndicate forged everything based on the actual car (also known as the twin car). It is indeed a fraud and a sophisticated crime at that which incorporated high technical skill. Then, there was a question about the missing components after it was sent to the workshop for repair. Puan Mas Tina stated that it is a spare parts theft that may cause danger because of the low-quality components. She suggested the owner lodging a police report and possibly listing all the components that were stolen or changed. If the workshop is a panel workshop for insurance or takaful operator, please report for their acknowledgement.
Encik Muhammad Alif Mohd Adnan hosting the session
Last but not least, Puan Mas Tina tried to answer on behalf of the PDRM in a general manner to the posed question asking the initiative taken by the PDRM on the fraudster who scrapped the vehicle for monetary gains. This issue is a recurring fraud in which the owner using fake claims that the car being allegedly stolen but instead sent for scrapped for illegal spare parts business. According to Puan Mas Tina, various initiatives involving the government and insurance industry has been considered. For instance, the establishment of a Fraud Intelligence System (FIS) to trace forge or wrongdoings in terms of fraud. Puan Mas Tina, later on, stated that it is more appropriate if the PDRM answer the question regarding their initiatives but at the same time assuring that the PDRM is looking into the matter seriously and come out with few strategies to curb this issue.
The session was hosted by Encik Muhammad Alif Mohd Adnan and ended at 3.33 pm.
