If you watch the movie 'Catch Me If You Can', you may experience the modus operandi of a young scammer, Frank Abagnale Jr., who was played by Leonardo DiCaprio and became an expert in forging cheques in various banks in the United States. However, Frank's fraudulent activities caught the attention of FBI agent Tom Hanks, who later captured him and put him in jail for his crime.
Despite being in jail, fraud activity at that time was still rampant, raising concerns about the FBI's ability to find ways to resolve it. Soon, they employed the imprisoned Frank with the promise of good conduct in exchange for his expertise in investigating scammers ruining the banking system in the United States.
Besides the FBI, an established agency has been set up to prevent fraud, deception and unfair business practices. The agency, known as The Federal Trade Commission, will take action on fraud cases while disseminating information and creating awareness to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid scams and fraud activities.
Similarly, in Malaysia, several authorities have been entrusted to act upon fraud and scams upon receiving complaints or reports from the public. According to the portal asklegal.my, three main bodies have been set up based on their expertise and portfolio: BNM, MCMC and KPDNHEP. Besides PDRM, which will act as the main body investigating criminal activities, including fraud and scams, the public may also file complaints about financial scams with BNM under the so-called BNMtelelink at 1300-88-5465.
While the scams involving data or personal information can be directed to MCMC, where they can investigate any wrongdoing and regulate the content that will go up on the internet, those who feel cheated and have been scammed through buying and selling of consumer products online may complain to KPDNHEP for further investigation.
Generally, scams here in Malaysia are prevalent among ordinary people and are not restricted to specific sectors or mediums of communication. It may occur anywhere, not necessarily in financial institutions. Still, it may happen in government offices, the private sector, and social media, where scammers can exploit flaws and loopholes in our procedures and security system.
We take, for example, one scam case in the land office where an impostor assumed the registered owner's identity, purposely reporting a loss of the title deed for a piece of land worth millions of dollars. Using a fake statutory declaration and identity document of the registered owner, the impostor had applied for the issuance of a fresh title deed where the land office had accepted the documents in good faith.
Later, the impostor collected the title deed and sold the said property to a developer, Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd, without the knowledge of the registered owner, Boonsom Boonyanit. After Ms Boonyanit realised her properties had been sold, she sued Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd for a return of the title deed but was denied by the court of law.
In the end, sadly, Ms Boonyanit does not earn a penny despite having lost her properties completely to the irresponsible scammer. Even though strong protests and requests by various parties to amend the law and procedure that did not protect landowners, the effort was made to no avail.
Land scams have been occurring in our homeland for many years now, but there have been many reported incidents of financial fraud that we cannot take for granted. There were cases highlighted in our local newspaper where employees were the main culprits who forged the cheque to swindle illegal monies from their employer for their benefit,
As reported in NST, Mr Chai Kok Wah, who employed a new account clerk, was puzzled when he found that his cheques were forged and money was drawn out of his bank account. Even though Mr Chai has reported the matter to relevant authorities, including the police, bank, and BNM, all the efforts appear futile as little progress has been made to recover the total amount. Here we may learn that the integrity and honesty of a person play an essential role in recruiting employees, especially when handling the company's money and assets.
In another case reported by The Star, A company director was charged at the Session Courts in Ipoh with 64 counts of misappropriation and forging cheques amounting to more than RM10 million., In the same court, the company director was jointly charged with the former consultant with four charges of falsifying documents. Some of the offences, if convicted, will carry a maximum of 20 years in jail, including whipping and fines. The offence of a fraud conviction is severe, but people tend to do it for various reasons, probably greed being one of them.
Scams are not confined to the forgery of cheques; they may happen to people who purchase a new car for their use. In a recent case, The Sun Daily reported that a man lost RM90,000/- to a car sales agent he believed to be a scammer when the purchaser banked the money in a designated company account to complete the purchase. When the company manager contacted the purchaser, they soon realised that the money was not gone to the company account while the car sales agent had left the company.
One of the essential notes here is that when transmitting money to the company account, it is crucial to get the necessary official receipt from the company as proof of payment to avoid a dispute at a later date.
As Malaysians, we are proud that our country is moving fast towards becoming civilised. Still, we are concerned that the scam situation is rising and getting worse in the institutions, organisations, and social media we rely upon. If the situation is not tackled correctly, it will erase our confidence in placing our faith in public institutions such as banks and government offices to safeguard our interests,
This situation will deteriorate further if the existing laws and regulations are not good enough to cover ordinary citizens' welfare and basic rights.
Should there be existing laws and procedures that show weaknesses or are deemed outdated in their application, we seek to review and replace the redundant clauses or make some amendments to add more protections and confidence to the public at large.
We are very concerned that if the scam issue becomes systemic and out of control, it will create chaos and scare investors from placing their money elsewhere. Organisations such as Banks, the Land Office, EPF, National Registration Dept, JPJ and others are vital in protecting our interests and serving as guardians of our personal money, savings, assets, properties and confidential records deemed as National Treasury.
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