“Sabah, Sarawak easiest target for scams”, says ex-money game operator
1st January 2022 — Money games or financial pyramid schemes have popped out in dozens during the MCO in this Covid-19 era, and have defrauded hundreds of millions of ringgit from gullible and unsuspecting Malaysians through promises of “get rich quick” or “quick rewards” scams.
Topping the list of financial fraud victims, East Malaysia namely
Sabah and Sarawak has been leading in nett financial losses from these type of schemes, with Sarawak losing around RM137 million and Sabah around RM128 million in 2021 alone.
In a closed door interview, an ex-money game operator from Butterworth, Penang(who declined to be named) who is currently serving a 5 year sentence in a Malaysian prison pointed out, “Sabahans and Sarawakians are the easiest target for popularizing money games.”
When probed further on his strategy, he explained that “East Malaysians are extremely gullible in believing in schemes that are too good to be true, partially because these schemes are unknown quite “fresh” in Sabah and Sarawak, where as money games have already been in operation in the West Malaysia for decades, and almost everyone is already trained to spot them.”
Operating at the height of four financial schemes at one time before being caught, he said that “We target Sabah and Sarawak with very different strategies. Majority of Sarawakians are Chinese and generally hardworking, frugal, conservative and calculative; hence we have to attract and entice them by promoting money savings, rewards and discounted purchase schemes.”
“Sabahans are generally more exposed to the western culture and more lazy, luxury and lavish spending oriented, and we would have to invent luxury based products to lure them in. This means products are being marked up 100 or 200 times the cost and sold through multi-level marketing.”
When asked further what type of people would be most susceptible to scams, he said “Contrary to public opinion, its not a matter of rich or poor, ignorant, and certainly not the lowly educated. It is the greedy and the lazy folks that would fall into these scams easily. These people will always believe that there is “free money falling from the sky” and charitable investment companies willing to give more than 200–300% returns per annum for free for everyone, because indeed we do give them out initially using investment capital from the future or later members.”
Asked if he would continue to go back to his “trade” after his prison term ends, he said “It is an ugly business. I will not touch these again, and that is the reason I am disclosing these truths so that Sabahans and Sarawakians will be more aware. However sadly, I foresee that they will never wake up; these schemes are too enticing and attractive for them that it overrides logic thinking; most of them will only realize the truth after being burnt”.
What can is the financial trend in schemes currently? “Before the MCO and the pandemic, all money games used to revolve around investments and attractive returns; however during the pandemic people’s tendency has been to save money rather than increasing income. Hence the trend currently is to introduce schemes that would save money through purchase rewards by investing in a certain amount that will generate interest.”
Asked if he would specifically name current money games and schemes that are running in the market, he said he would not do that in fear of exposing former colleagues in crime that would endanger himself and his family members.
Natalie Lee
Eyes of Asia
