![\"online\"](\"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe modus operandi in getting the accounts is by advertisements on social media or by using a \u2018friend\u2019 who will offer a certain amount of payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmong their excuses are for business purposes and such, in which their targets consist of those who are in need, namely drug addicts, housewives and students,\u201d he told Bernama in an interview recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further explained that in certain cases, they were also individuals who borrowed money from Ah Long (loan sharks) and were told to give their ATM cards and pin numbers as one of the conditions for repayment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zainuddin disclosed that last year, a total of 18,130 mule accounts had been frozen while this year (until Oct 9), 16,429 mule accounts were put under similar action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA total of 6,409 account holders were charged last year, and 3,176 were charged, from January to Oct 9 this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey were committing offences under Section 412 of the Penal Code and Section 29(1) of the Minor Offences Act 1955 for possessing illegal property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zainuddin said while most account holders were not aware that their accounts were being used for illegal purposes, there were also among them who purposely gave their account number for online cheating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that those who co-operated with online cheating syndicates and intentionally provided their account numbers had clearly violated laws, and action could be taken against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If convicted, the punishment includes five years\u2019 jail or fine or both, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they (members of the public) see a suspicious transaction, immediately lodge a report so that action can be taken quickly,\u201d he said, adding that the police are always working closing with financial and telecommunication institutions, as well as foreign enforcement agencies, to curb and find the best solution for commercial cases particularly cyber crimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also reminded the public to always refer to the related banks and the police\u2019s portal ccid.rmp.gov.my\/semakmule, or their official social media sides if they suspected online scams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — Over 80,000 mule accounts, owned by those who allowed the accounts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",730,652,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de-300x268.jpg",300,268,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",640,572,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",640,572,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",730,652,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",730,652,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",730,652,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",730,652,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2ec91526dd7f8a302e43c417e348ac775f8a8420a38de.jpg",532,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Crime<\/a> Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6375"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6377,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6375\/revisions\/6377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}