PENANG: Thousands of people nationwide are believed to have lost several million ringgit in an Internet “investment” scheme known as buy-e-barrel which has closed down abruptly.
Investors have been unable to log onto their online accounts over the past two weeks.
An investor, who declined to be named, said he managed to “escape” before the US-based pyramid scheme collapsed.
“I made a few thousand ringgit from the scheme which offered daily interest of between 2% and 3% for an investment of between US$100 (RM345) and US$2,000 (RM6,900),” he said.
He believed that many of those who lost their money were government servants, adding that they took part in the scheme at the tailend.
George Town OCPD Asst Comm Azam Abd Hamid said the police were aware of such a scheme but had yet to receive any report from those who lost money.
He advised victims to lodge police reports if they had been cheated so that they could investigate the case as cheating.
The Securities Commission has issued
an alert on more than 50 websites which
promised quick returns with minimum investments and urged the public not to invest in them.
“These websites are not authorised or approved under the country's securities laws to deal in securities or whatever investments,” ACP Azam said.
A check by The Star found that buy-e-barrel was among the websites mentioned in the SC list at:
www.sc.com.my/eng/html/licensing/ investors/Alert_list.html.
The SC recently froze two bank accounts with RM1.6mil and closed two websites
said to be connected to a global Internet investment scam run by Cambridge Capital Trading.
Last week, the National Fatwa Council passed a fatwa forbidding Muslims from investing in shares on the Internet.