He said these investigation papers were recorded between Oct 14, 2022 and September this year.

He told the Dewan Rakyat that during the same period, another 77 probe papers related to money laundering were opened, leading to the freezing of accounts amounting to RM75.35 million.

Kula said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had also acted against phone numbers used by scammers.

“From October 2022 until October this year, the commission terminated 131 phone numbers involved in scams, while 112 numbers were blocked for suspicious activity,” he said.

He was responding to Hasnizan Harun (PN-Hulu Selangor) who asked about the initiatives undertaken by the ministry to address the issue of online scams, which has resulted in losses exceeding RM2.6 billion in less than three years.