While Bukit Aman had initially denied Meta’s allegations, Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said he had instructed the commercial crime investigation department (CCID) to review the allegation.

“We strongly deny (the allegation). (However) I have ordered the CCID to review the allegation, so we are still investigating it,” Acryl Sani told a press conference at the police academy here.

In its Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report, Meta said it had removed 596 Facebook accounts, 180 pages, 11 groups and 72 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against coordinated inauthentic behaviour, alleging that they were linked to the police.

It said these individuals were also active on TikTok and Twitter, where they posted memes in Malay in support of the current government coalition, with claims of corruption among its critics.

In response, federal police secretary Noorsiah Saaduddin denied the allegation and said the cops were gathering full information on the matter.

Earlier, the police appointed at least 56 people as anti-scam ambassadors, including former badminton legend Lee Chong Wei, national singles champion Lee Zii Jia and singer Ahmad Azhar Othman, also known as Awie.

There has been an increase in scam cases nationwide since the pandemic struck, with online fraud reportedly accounting for 68% of commercial crime cases from 2020 to May this year.

In June, Acryl Sani said a total of 71,833 commercial crime cases were reported and involved losses amounting to RM5.2 billion.