A SPIKE of 53.2 percent was recorded in commercial crime cases resulting in estimated losses of RM14.33 billion in five years.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the increase was caused by a surge in technology and global telecommunication growth enabling the perpetrators to come up with novel modus operandi to cheat people.
"Technological advances are directly connected to the spike in commercial crimes. Based on records, these cases keep increasing every year.
"Commercial crime cases recorded in 2023 rose by 53.2 per cent compared to five years ago," he said during a press conference at the CCID in Kuala Lumpur.
The losses incurred in 2019 were RM6.217 billion (26,330 cases); in 2020 it was RM2.064 billion (27,323 cases); in 2021, RM2.206 billion (31,490 cases); in 2022, RM1.733 billion (30,536 cases), and 2023, RM2.11 billion (40,350 cases).
He acknowledged that the surge in commercial crimes posed a big challenge to CCID because they worked with limited manpower.
"Based on the current strength of 839 investigating officers, the ratio of investigating officers to investigation papers opened is 1:48.
"A total of 48 investigation papers per annum is not an ideal figure for an investigating officer. It also does not include the previous year's cases and other assignments.
"Therefore, CCID is intensively working on increasing our personnel this year," he said. – Bernama, January 5, 2024
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