The Malaysian Insight

DURING the mid-Autumn festival recently, 20-year-old ‘Alice’ committed suicide after losing RM16,000 to online loan scammers.

Her shocked family members, who told The Malaysian Insight about her death, said they had no idea about her problems and only found clues in her mobile phone, which showed the manipulative approach scammers used to make the girl fork out time after time.

Increasingly, the victims falling prey to online money scams are younger in age, say those who run public complaints bureaus for political parties.

News reports about cheating scams have often involved older folk, but when it comes to fake online loans or investment scams, the age profile of victims is younger, the heads of bureaus run by Gerakan and DAP said.

Gerakan public services and complaints bureau chief Henry Teoh said helping people, victims of online loan scams tend to be in the 20 to 40 age bracket, with people in their 20s and 30s more prone to investment scams.

In 2020 alone, the bureau received 20 requests for help, all of them linked to online money scams.

Sums range from RM20,000 to RM30,000, Teoh told The Malaysian Insight, adding that some victims lost double the amount they took in loans or put in as initial “investments”.

This year, during the third movement control order (MCO) from June to August, the bureau received another 15 appeals for help involving online investments.

One case his bureau helped involved a 20-year-old man who was defrauded of RM21,000 through an investment scam.

His parents, too, were duped when they saw how much money their son was “earning”, when in fact, there was no real money, until they realised too late.

Teoh said the scammers promote their schemes in newspapers and online advertisements, and people curious enough to look them up are then added to chat groups where the scammers make promises of sweet returns such as “invest RM1,000 and get RM200 interest”.

The victims find out too late when they want to stop investing and ask to cash out.

Teoh said victims never get their money back, and the best thing they can do is to lodge a police report.

Federal Territories DAP bureau complaints chief Yew Jia Haur confirmed that more victims are younger in age, especially those who borrow from online money lenders.

The victims now are between 17 to 40, he said.

Many of them aren’t eligible for a bank loan due to age or poor credit scores.

“They then turn to these online money lenders who guarantee approval even if you are blacklisted but the interest rates are much higher.

“Victims are often asked to pay a security deposit ranging from RM1,000 to RM2,000. Once you pay, you will be sucked into the scam.

“Some people who want to borrow RM10,000, lose more money in the process.

“If you stop paying the scammers halfway, you won’t be able to get any of your money back,” said Yew.

During the first MCO last year, his bureau received 10 to 20 complaints linked to online fraud each month.

The number of complaints was more or less the same until the middle of this year, Yew added.

His advice to those in need of cash is to borrow from friends or family, instead of turning to loan sharks or online money lenders.

Meanwhile, when a police report is lodged, Yew said those who are arrested are the “money mules” but the mastermind always escapes.

These mules, he said, are individuals who lend their bank accounts, but they are not the brains behind the operations.

In Alice’s case, the scammers’ first trick was to offer to raise her credit rating as she was ineligible for the RM15,000 loan she wanted to take.

According to Alice’s aunt, who wanted to be known as Wu, the 20-year-old was told to pay all sorts of fees by the “company”.

The outfit presented itself as a licensed money lender, and at one point Alice was threatened with police action if she didn’t pay, Wu told The Malaysian Insight.

At this point, she realised she was being scammed but the scammers continued to push and threaten her, telling her to borrow money from others.

They told her that she could get her money back but only after paying an extra sum to meet the minimum withdrawal amount of RM20,000.

By this time Alice had given them RM16,000. It was also then that she decided to take her life. She left her family a message, explaining how tired she felt having failed her college exams and now, being scammed.

Wu said the family has hired a lawyer to take up the case with the police.

From the messages between Alice and the scammers, Wu said they were manipulative and aggressive.

“They bombarded Alice with messages every minute and pressured her for more money.”

Wu said it is still unclear to the family why Alice had wanted a loan. The family blames themselves for not recognising Alice’s troubles.

Wu agreed to have Alice’s story shared with the public as a caution to families to be alert to what is happening in young people’s lives, and what they are up to when they go online.

“We would like to advise young people reading this article to speak about their problems to their family members. University can be tough, don’t be sad if you don’t succeed academically, there is always another path.

“Life is precious. Think about your loved ones before doing anything that you cannot come back from,” said Wu. – October 22, 2021.