06/12/2025

SATURDAY | DEC 6, 2025

5

Families of trio shot dead by cops dispute account

Online scam losses since 2022 exceed RM2 billion

Ű BY FAIZ RUZMAN newsdesk@thesundaily.com

21 minutes and 12 seconds. “But for the last 13 minutes and 53 seconds, when she realised someone was chasing them, she decided to start recording,” Arun said during a phone interview. He said the call shows Logeswaran telling his wife that two unmarked cars were trying to stop them before the Ayer Keroh toll and that he did not know why the vehicles were giving chase. She advised him to head to the nearest police station and he replied that the next exit was Simpang Ampat, before informing her he had already passed it. According to Arun, the recording began after the car came to a stop due to overheating. Soon after the vehicle stalled, the trio were surrounded by a group of men, preventing them from calling for breakdown assistance. Arun added that forensic analysis of the audio identified the shooting sequence. “The first shot was at 1.38am involving Puvaneswaran, the second at 1.39am involving Pushpanathan and the final at 1.40am involving Logeswaran. These times were extracted from the audio,” he said. To corroborate the timeline, Arun said they appointed forensic specialist G. Venodthan of Thistlegorm Forensics, who analysed the 13-minute recording, extracted timestamps and compared them with the victims’ call logs and location data. In a statement on Dec 3, Criminal Investigations Department director Datuk M. Kumar said the trio were shot after they allegedly attacked officers with a machete, injuring two policemen. Police said the men were believed to be involved in a series of armed robberies linked to the Geng Durian Tunggal, with initial investigations identifying cases in Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor. Malacca CID initially opened an investigation under Section 307 of the Penal Code before Bukit Aman formed a special task force to review the incident. Police previously told the media that one of the men had 39 criminal and drug-related records while another had 12, with the group suspected of causing losses exceeding RM1.3 million. colloquial Bahasa Malaysia, Manglish or creative spelling hacks such as ‘Mayb4nk’ or ‘BNM Offiicial’, so many scam posts simply slip through. “Secondly, the ad-approval process is inconsistent. A scam can be approved faster than a legitimate business because automated systems prioritise volume over verification. “And thirdly, the friction for bad actors is extremely low. It is too easy for scammers to open new pages, impersonate banks or government agencies and run ads within minutes. When one account is taken down, another appears just as quickly.” Mediha said Malaysia is now studying global mandatory fraud-prevention models, including the UK’s Online Safety Act, Australia’s scam code and Singapore’s shared responsibility framework. “We are moving towards minimum safety standards such as real identity verification for advertisers, mandatory takedown times for high-risk categories like scams, independent audits of detection systems and mechanisms to stop repeat offenders from reopening accounts. “Banks, telcos, regulators, platforms and users all share responsibility. No single party can tackle this alone,” she said. – by Faiz Ruzman

Nov 23 to visit relatives before returning to Kuala Lumpur for an early-morning prayer gathering, according to their families. theSun reached out to their legal representative Arun Dorasamy, who is working on the case with lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan. Arun claimed the digital trail places the men on the northbound PLUS Highway about 5km after the Simpang Ampat exit and before the Linggi exit at a small semicircular emergency bay and not inside a plantation as stated by police. “They drove all the way there and reached home at Taman Nuri Fasa Dua at 12.30am. They left the house at 12.57am because they were supposed to join a prayer in KL in the early morning. “The live location was activated by Logeswaran and shared with his wife at 1.10am at Taman Kenari Jaya in Durian Tunggal. The call started at 1.17am and lasted

o Digital trail and recording of live-location contradict police claims on case

PETALING JAYA: Losses of over RM2 billion from over 50,000 online scam cases have been recorded as of October this year since 2022, underscoring the fact that more Malaysians continue to fall victim to scammers. In a joint written statement to theSun , National Cybersecurity Agency (Nacsa) deputy chief executives Noursilawati Abdul Halim (Operations) and Edora Ahmad (Legal Management) said police records show scam cases rose by 125% from 25,479 in 2022 to 57,375 as of October. Total reported losses increased from RM851 million to RM2.16 billion over the same period. “The figures reported today still represent only a portion of the true scale. Based on combined insights from reporting channels, industry threat intelligence and inter-agency coordination, we estimate that Malaysia faces thousands of coordinated scam attempts each week across social media, messaging apps and digital platforms,” they said, adding that the surge spans various scam categories. According to Nacsa data via police records, the highest accumulated losses came from non-existent investment schemes, including fake investment apps, high-return frauds and impersonation of licensed financial institutions, growing from RM219 million to RM1.25 billion. Telecommunication fraud cases jumped from 7,732 to 24,472, with losses increasing from RM321 million to RM628 million. They said love scam cases, involving fake online relationships created to gain trust before duping the victims of money, remained largely unchanged but continued to cause millions in losses each year. However, combined with online financial scams, including fake sellers, forged payment receipts and fraudulent digital services, the numbers grew from 1,257 to 4,709, an increase of 275% since 2022, accounting for more than RM100 million in losses annually. Non-existent loan scams involving fake lenders collecting upfront fees rose from 3,174 to 6,926 cases, with total losses amounting to RM51 million. On scam coordination tactics, they said syndicates often rely on speed, automation and cross-platform migration to evade platform safeguards. “Cybercriminals use automation and bulk messaging tools that allow scammers to reach thousands of users in minutes. They prepare centralised scripts and playbooks, enabling scammers to deliver identical messages or impersonations with only minor variations. “To evade detection across multiple security ecosystems, they use cross-platform handover methods, in which victims are contacted on one app but moved to another for payment, verification or fake customer service. “They also offer scam franchising, in which smaller groups purchase ready-made scam kits, fake websites and chat scripts from larger fraud syndicates.” They also warned that scammers could recreate new numbers, accounts or domains almost instantly, making it difficult for platforms to identify repeat offenders without shared intelligence. On victim demographics, Nacsa said impersonation and investment scams continue to target retirees, while students are drawn into job scams, parcel scams and quick-income offers. Gig workers face fake bookings and fraudulent payment links, while small businesses are hit by invoice fraud, supplier impersonation and compromised WhatsApp or email accounts. “Digital platforms operating in Malaysia must be held to a uniform baseline of verification, monitoring and accountability. “Using MyDigital ID in verification processes could provide a government-backed layer of trust and reduce impersonation risks.”

Ű BY FAIZ RUZMAN newsdesk@thesundaily.com

PETALING JAYA: The families of three men shot dead during a police operation at Durian Tunggal in Malacca on Nov 24 have presented a movement timeline which they claim contradicts the police account of the incident. They cited a shared live-location, phone records and an audio recording that allegedly captured the actual chronology of events. The victims – T. Poovaneswaran, 24, M. Puspanathan, 21, and G. Logeswaran, 29 – had travelled from Serdang to Malacca on

URBAN DELUGE ... Floodwaters covering parts of Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah in Kuala Lumpur following a flash flood triggered by heavy rain on Thursday. – BERNAMAPIC

Fraudsters use leaked data to pre-select victims: MCMC PETALING JAYA: Fraud syndicates “already know who they are looking for” by using leaked or harvested personal data of targeted victims, especially in Telegram groups. PTPTN impersonations, money-mule recruitment or small-amount job scams,” she said.

Mediha added that scammers obtain information either through insider leaks from banks or insurance providers or by piecing together traces from online activity. “It’s not out of the realm of possibility for insider leaks to occur. What we do know is scammers can also gather information from our own digital footprints, the things we upload, talk about or share online, which give them clues about who to target. “Digital footprints reveal a lot. People announce their retirement, post about financial stress, share job-hunt details, talk about debts or fill in fake online surveys. “These small pieces of information, when stitched together, help scammers identify who is vulnerable and what approach to use,” she said. On why scam content spreads so quickly across major platforms, Mediha outlined three structural weaknesses that allow syndicates to operate with near impunity. “Firstly, there is an over-reliance on AI that is not trained for our local context. Algorithms do not always recognise how scams are written in

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission communications and multimedia content forum executive director Mediha Mahmood told theSun that the syndicates rely on illegally obtained personal information to identify vulnerable individuals long before platforms detect suspicious activity. She said the syndicates pick out selected Telegram users and target them with high pressure tactics, adding that they appear to know when a person reaches an age at which they may have access to their pension fund. “Some groups obtain illegally compiled data lists sold by irresponsible third parties, labelled as ‘homeowners’, ‘investors’ or ‘recent retirees’. These are bought and used to pinpoint who is nearing or entering retirement. “Data leaks can also happen through cyberattacks, malicious insiders with system access or weak security protocols that expose customer information. “This is why retirees are hit with ads for high-return investments or fixed-deposit replacements. Students are targeted with