Putrajaya to table Bill on cybercrimes in July, will include scams

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail today said the government plans to introduce a law encompassing all forms of cybercrimes as current legislation is insufficient to deal with the sophisticated methods used by perpetrators.

He added that it will be brought to the table in the July parliamentary sitting.

“If everything goes smoothly according to plan, in the July Parliament sitting we will table a Bill in relation to the government’s efforts in addressing cybercrimes,” Saifuddin said during the minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat.

He was replying to Kota Baru MP Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan who wanted to know what the government is doing to deal with cybercrimes, especially job scams.

Saifuddin said one of the strategies being used by police is conducting prevention campaigns to remind Malaysians to be cautious as it has proven to be effective.

“The highest number of cases reported was last April, there were 73 reports lodged.

“Since then it has been a downward trend, in February we received one report and in January there were nine reports. So when we plot the graph, it is a downward trend since the prevention campaigns commenced,” he said.

Saifuddin was replying to PKR’s Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin who asked about the government’s efforts to address job scammers who are still in the country.

“On enforcement, we are identifying the agents and companies and in the briefing I received, there are two job scam agencies which have been detected whereby eight individuals have been arrested from the two agencies,” he said.

He further revealed that from police profiling done on rescued job scam victims, they found several reasons as to how these Malaysians ended up abroad.

“First category is those who were really attracted to the job advertisements but when they arrive there they see that the situation is not what they imagined it to be.

“Second category is those who when they decided to leave the country already knew that they will be working as job scammers and if they are successful, they hit KPI (key performance indicator), they don’t want to return.

“But there are also those who did not hit KPI, and had contacted us to say that they are job scam victims,” Saifuddin said.

He added that there are also those who have been there much earlier for gambling purposes, they lost money and proceeded to borrow from loan sharks.

“But when they could not repay the loan sharks, they contacted the police to say that they are victims of job scams, even these we have brought them back.

“The ‘right to return’ we have carried out fully. It is only when they have returned they tell us.

“Third category are those whom we have rescued, but they returned again and when they land in trouble they call us to rescue them again,” he said, adding these were not mere myths but facts found through profiling done by the police.

Saifuddin said these were steps taken by the government to combat new inter-border crimes that never occurred 10 to 15 years ago but are happening now.

On separate matter, Saifuddin denied his ministry’s decision to remove child detainees from immigration detention depots was related to a recent raid on a migrant settlement in Nilai Spring, Negeri Sembilan, earlier this month.

He said during a later press conference in the Parliament building that the move had instead been planned since he took office as the home minister.

“My engagement with various agencies including the agency under the ministry’s supervision, with non-governmental organisation (NGO) has happened as soon as I set foot in the office,” he said.

Earlier today, national news agency Bernama reported that the government would shift children detained at the immigration detention depots soon and place them under the care of NGOs specialising in child welfare.

Previously, Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had criticised Malaysian authorities over the Nilai Spring raid, in which 67 undocumented migrants were detained.

Among the 67 detainees were children as young as two months’ old, as well as others of school going age who were being prepared for integration with the Indonesian national school system once they returned home permanently.