Establish Anti-Scam Act to thwart scammers

KUALA LUMPUR - The government is urged to introduce stricter laws to thwart scams that have been rampant in the country.

Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) Secretary-General Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim said it was time for the laws to be stricter especially with the Anti-Scam Act to eradicate cyberspace scam crimes.

"We saw scam victims consisted of those from all ages without any consideration of their background and this is a serious matter as we don’t want the citizens to continuously be their victims.

"There must be an Anti-Scam Act that puts a longer prison sentence to ensure those involved receive harsher sentences,” he said.

He said such during a press conference with investment fraud victims at the Sentul district police headquarters (IPD) grounds on Saturday.

He said the current act was not as effective and did not deter the perpetrators.

"We see in Section 415 and 420 of the penal code used for scammers the penalties are not effective and they are brave enough to continue deceiving more victims to collect more money.

"The Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom) Act 2007 for example was put in place to combat human trafficking, a stricter law must be created to deal with fraud comprehensively,” he said.

He said the scammers were smart in utilising their opportunities to deceive victims.

"The main issue was towards victims because scammers use certain legal systems to commit these fraudulent crimes.

"To avoid it from running rampant something must be done and strict action must be taken to ensure scams are eradicated,” he said.