Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) recorded a total of 16 online face mask scam cases involving a total loss of over RM355,000 since February 9 until yesterday.
State CCID chief Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah when contacted today disclosed that the highest number of cases recorded was in Miri, with six cases involving RM20,875 in losses while Sibu recorded the highest loss of RM276,963 from four cases.
Meanwhile, Padawan recorded three cases involving a total loss of RM1,370 while Kuching recorded two cases involving losses of RM20,800.
“I would like to advise the public not to buy (face masks) from unreliable sources as all of these 16 cases involved online sellers who did not deliver the goods as promised after payments were made,” Mustafa said.
He revealed that eight of the cases involved victims who were scammed via online sellers on Facebook while the remaining cases were through other online platforms such as WeChat and Google ads.
The highest loss recorded from a single case was from Sibu on Feb 14 when a 36-year-old businessman was scammed for a total of RM266,153 for face masks which never arrived.
All of the 16 victims are aged between 19 years old to 54 years old and comprise of 11 women and five men, including a doctor at a government hospital.