PENANG: Indians in Malaysia are less likely becoming scam victims, mainly because they ask too many questions for scammers to handle, says Penang Commercial Crime Investigation Department deputy chief DSP Pang Meng Tuck.

Data collected by the police consistently shows Indians are scammed less frequently than other ethnic groups, he said this at a forum on scam prevention organised by the Penang Chinese Town Hall on Saturday,

DSP Pang said based on his interviews with arrested scammers, Indians are targeted just as often but scammers find them difficult to deceive because they respond with a barrage of questions.

“Say a scammer tries to convince an Indian victim of a kidnapping that has never happened. The victim will ask: who was kidnapped? Where? When? Why?

“The questions keep coming until the scammer just gives up and moves on,” he said.

According to the data collected by the police in Penang last year, the breakdown of cases is listed in the table:

Women dominate romance parcel scam victims

Turning to romance parcel scams, DSP Pang said the 2024 Penang data recorded 57 female victims against only 17 males.

The gap may be partly due to men’s reluctance to report such cases out of embarrassment.

He said romance parcel scam victims typically share one of two traits: greed or loneliness.

He cited two cases—a nurse from a Penang hospital who was swindled out of RM30,000 by an online “boyfriend” on a popular dating platform, and a friend’s sister who lost close to RM1 million to a “new partner” she met after her husband’s death, including insurance payouts from her late husband.