PETALING JAYA: Investors in the securities market have been advised to be wary of celebrities or influencers who endorse products and services or provide investment advice.
Such advice, spread through social media, can be false or misleading, Securities Commission (SC) chairman Awang Adek Hussin said today.
He said the investing public should also be wary of self-proclaimed investment gurus who offer questionable advice or use social media to offer unsolicited guidance.
Awang Adek, who was delivering his official remarks at InvestSmart Fest 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, said that over the last two years there had been a significant increase in the number of online scams.
He said that in the last two years, almost 72,000 such scams have been reported, involving losses amounting to RM5.2 billion. He said close to 12,000 of them were investment scams.
“As of September, the SC has already received more than 1,800 complaints and enquiries related to investment scams and unlicensed activities (for this year),” he said.
He said scammers were turning to increasingly sophisticated methods to target investors.
Among the victims are those who hope to gain a lot of money irrespective of the risks.
“Some would call that the ‘gambling instinct’,”he added.
Awang Adek said most of the scams were spread through messaging apps such…
