If it’s too good to be true, it’s likely a scam

Compiled by ZULKIFLI ABD RAHMAN, JAROD LIM and R. ARAVINTHAN

THERE are many quarters on social media offering fantastic returns if you join their investment schemes, some even claiming to be syariah-compliant to present an image that their business is legitimate. Others use pictures of VIPs, corporate leaders and Islamic scholars.

Don’t be fooled.

A Berita Harian reporter responded to one of the schemes on Facebook and was contacted by a site administrator who informed him that an initial investment could see returns of up to RM5,000, promising a massive RM120,000 in profit from a maximum investment of RM10,000.

It immediately raised the reporter’s suspicions. One red flag was the “too good to be true” high returns within just a day.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations CEO T. Saravanan called on the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to be more aggressive in preventing such investment schemes from being promoted on social media.

He said one hurdle is that many of these investment websites were hosted overseas, which makes it difficult for the authorities to stop such schemes from appearing online.

> Utusan Malaysia reported that three million Malaysians travelled to Thailand from January to October this year. About 700,000 Thais entered Malaysia during the same period.

Consul-general to Songkhla Ahmad Fahmi Ahmad Sarkawi said Malaysians comprised the majority of tourists going to Thailand after the reopening of the country’s borders.

He added that about one million Thais are expected to visit tourist sites in Malaysia.

Ahmad Fahmi said several events can help ramp up the number of tourists from Thailand, such as Visit Perlis Year 2024/2025 and Festival Malaysia 2023.

Economist Barjoyai Bardai said the outflow of ringgit overseas can weaken the local currency. He said if Malaysians spend RM1,000 on average in Thailand for three to five days, Malaysia will lose about RM3bil.

“We need to make tourism activities in Malaysia more exciting and vibrant to attract not only foreign tourists to come here, but Malaysians as well,” he added.

> Actress Wafariena Roslan denied that she is on a career break, saying that many of the dramas she has acted in have yet to be shown on television.

In fact, she said she has received so many acting offers that she has no time to take a break, Kosmo! reported.

“I only had a break during the Covid-19 movement control order.

“I was also away for two months when I got injured during a video shoot. Otherwise, I was always working,” said the 28-year-old beauty.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.