758,851 people in Malaysia lost RM1.135 billion to illegal investments

How to avoid investment scams
August 23, 2017
Sujatha Sekhar Naik, CEO of SIDREC was recently interviewed for the feature Protecting Yourself From Investment Scams in Smart Investor, in which investors are taught how to identify and avoid investment scams. Some of the advice include avoiding pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, gold investment scams, and Swisscoin scams.
Why you should only invest in legitimate schemes
When you do not invest in legitimate schemes, you open yourself to investment scams which may leave you little or no recourse to avenues for help and redress. However, if you do find yourself in a situation where your investments are made through legitimate avenues such as licensed intermediaries (e.g. banks, brokers, fund management companies, unit trust management companies, and Private Retirement Scheme [PRS] providers and distributors), and you have a dispute that involves financial loss, then you have access to SIDREC’s dispute resolution service. We reproduce part of the feature article in Smart Investor, with some insights from Sujatha Sekhar Naik. How to get your money back from investment scams … for more, go to https://sidrec.com.my/avoid-investment-scams/

758,851 people in Malaysia lost RM1.135 billion to illegal investments

The federal government has revealed that 758,851 people lost a total of RM1.135 billion in Malaysia since 2015 as a result of illegal investments.

How can more than half a million people in Malaysia be so stupid or vulnerable to investment scams?


“I really do not know whether to cry for their losses or … they have mostly fallen prey to cheats because of greed,” Gerakan Deputy Speaker Syed Abdul Razak Alsagoff said.

He said the “victims” had only themselves to blame for their “greed”.

“Why invest in illegal schemes and operatives? Why part with their hard earned money and savings so easily to something that sounds too good to be true?” he asked.

More than half a million people duped by illegal investment scams in Malaysia
By Bernama - August 7, 2017 @ 6:11pm
KUALA LUMPUR: Over the past 19 months, more than 500,000 people became victims of scams involving illegal investments in the country. Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (JSJK) deputy, Datuk A Thaiveegan said the victims were conned by syndicates which offered high returns. “We have often advised the public to be cautious with any kind of investment, to check with Bank Negara and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) first before putting in any money,” he told a press conference here today … for more, go to https://www.nst.com.my/news/crime-courts/2017/08/265157/more-half-million-people-duped-illegal-investment-scams-malaysia
Syed Razak, who is Gerakan’s nominee to contest N.37 Bukit Lanjan in the coming 14th General Election (GE14), said Malaysians would be doing a “great service to the rakyat (people) and country if they, instead, help report suspicious schemes and operatives”.

“This will help alert the authorities early and clamp down on the culprits,” he added.

Read this national news agency Bernama report as posted by online news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT):

"RM1.1 billion lost due to illegal investments over 3 years

Bernama

| March 13, 2018

Most of them had put their money into e-money and unlicensed foreign exchange investments


ROMPIN: A total of RM1.135 billion in losses were incurred by 758,851 people in the country since 2015 as a result of illegal investments.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry secretary-general Jamil Salleh said the ministry viewed this matter seriously and was looking into ways to tackle the issue, including through the Scam Alert Campaign or #scamalert2018.

“This campaign is an initiative by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) to curb illegal investments which have been increasing lately, including pertaining to umrah (minor haj) trips.”

Among these scams were e-money investments, with losses amounting to RM700 million, and unlicensed foreign exchange investments, with losses totalling RM200 million.

“We urge the public to be more alert and lodge a complaint with SSM if they have their suspicions about schemes which are offered to them,” he said after launching the Youngpreneurs Go Carnival (YPGO) at Universiti Teknologi Nasional (Uniten) Muadzam Shah, Rompin.

Present were Uniten vice-chancellor Kamal Nasharuddin Mustapha and SSM chief executive officer Zahrah Abd Wahab Fenner.

Zahrah said at present, only 205 investment schemes of various types were registered with the SSM.

“These scams have a negative impact on the economy, resulting in losses of millions of ringgit.

“SSM hopes that the campaign will increase the public’s knowledge of illegal schemes and educate them about investing in legitimate ones,” she said."
N.37 LET BUKIT LANJAN SOAR WITH SYED ABDUL RAZAK ALSAGOFF

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