Scam victims not hypnotised but emotionally manipulated, say police

SEREMBAN: Victims of online scams who claim they had been hypnotised into revealing their personal and banking details are actually victims of mind games, says Bukit Aman Cyber Crime and Multimedia deputy director Senior Asst Comm Zaldino Zaludin.

He said there was nothing to suggest that these victims had been hypnotised.

“It is all about playing with one’s emotions and psychology.

“The victims give in due to fear, trepidation and a certain pressure and the end result is that they are unable to think rationally.

“The perpetrators neither use ‘jampi’ (a magic spell), ‘mantera’ (charm) or ‘kemenyan ‘(incense) to dupe them,” he said at the launch of the state-level “Cyber Crime Threat: Say No To Scam” town hall session held at the MBS Hall.

SAC Zaldino said to prevent being scammed, individuals who see no logic or were unable to make sense of things being told to them by a caller should end the call immediately.

“If you are starting to get confused, cut the call immediately. That way you would not follow what they are telling you,” he said.

Some victims are easily lured when they see that the returns being offered are unusually high like up to 300%.

SAC Zaldino said some victims get trapped in love scams simply by looking at the profile photograph and language used.

“Some people get conned easily when the perpetrator uses the profile picture of a very handsome man or a gorgeous woman.

“Once the scammer is able to control you psychologically, you are bound to do whatever that is told to you,” he said.

Syndicate members, he said, would usually have a firm and convincing tone and would claim to be from government agencies such as the police and the Inland Revenue Board or financial institutions.

“In some of our operations, we seized well prepared scripts which were used to confuse the victim.

“We must be able to think rationally that no government agency or department will ask you to transfer your money into a particular account and no court official would call an individual just out of the blue and tell him or her of an alleged offence,” he said.

Separately, SAC Zaldino said 12,722 suspects have been detained in the first eight months of this year for offences related to cyber crimes.

In 2023, 18,393 were detained and 16,244 in the previous year.