POLICE arrested 29,479 individuals for various commercial crimes between January and October this year, an increase of 15.88 per cent compared with 25,440 arrests recorded in the same period last year.
The 4,039 increase in arrests also contributed to a 52 per cent rise in the number of charges, which climbed to 21,342 from 14,041 over the corresponding period.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa said the number of charges increased by 7,301, reflecting the department's continued efforts to strengthen intelligence gathering, arrest operations, investigations and prosecutions.
“The number of charges increased by 7,301, from 14,041 to 21,342,” he told the media yesterday.
In a related development, losses from six major categories of online scams fell by 28 per cent to RM1.56 billion between January and October this year, compared with RM2.16 billion in the same period last year.
However, the number of online scam cases increased to 56,802 from 54,473 over the corresponding period.
“Despite the increase in cases, total losses across these categories declined from RM2.16 billion to RM1.56 billion, a reduction of 28 per cent,” he said.
Investment scams involving non-existent schemes recorded the sharpest decline, with cases falling 18 per cent to 6,537 from 7,951 previously.
Losses from such scams also dropped 52 per cent to RM600.37 million from RM1.25 billion.
Meanwhile, telecommunications-related crimes declined by 16 per cent to 19,625 cases from 23,396, while losses fell 22 per cent to RM480.13 million.
However, losses from electronic financial crimes surged 235 per cent to RM280.72 million from RM83.71 million, despite an eight per cent decline in the number of cases.
E-commerce scams recorded the highest increase in case numbers among the six major online scam categories, rising 56 per cent to 17,635 cases.
Rusdi said a total of 64,951 commercial crime cases were recorded between January and October this year, an increase of 5.55 per cent from 61,538 cases in the same period last year.
Overall losses from commercial crimes also rose 30.95 per cent to RM5.25 billion from RM4.01 billion. - November 14, 2026
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