Beware Of Kootu Fund Scam Public Reminded
BEWARE OF 'KOOTU' FUND SCAM, PUBLIC REMINDED
KUCHING: The ‘fairy tale’ promises of making easy money and owning gold jewellery have become a trending social media subject among Sarawakians since early last year.
The ‘kootu’ fund scheme known locally as ‘hoi emas’ involves a group of 10 to 15 individuals, each contributing to a fixed share to purchase gold jewellery.
The collected payment is then made to a so called ‘group leader’, who would manage it and then distribute the returns either in the form of cash or gold jewellery to each participant, according to their turns.
However, numerous reports are beginning to emerge this new year about group leaders not delivering their promises to the ‘kootu’ participants.
One of the individual who claimed that she was a victim to this scheme, said she joined a ‘kootu’ group on Facebook last November, where each participant was required to contribute a fixed amount of RM200 a month. It is said that the group comprised 12 people.
“This, however, turned out to be a big nightmare for other participants who were supposed to receive their end of the deal before me, but did not. The group leader suddenly disappeared,” she lamented during an interview yesterday.
The individual, who requested anonymity, said she had paid the group leader a total of RM2,000 in advance, meant to cover for a period of 10 months. She disclosed that she was scheduled to receive her returns this March.
Upon realising that something was amiss, she and other group participants got together and formulated their next course of action after failing to contact the leader via phone or WhatsApp.
“We even got a hold of her (group leader’s) closest friend to settle the case that, too, turned out to be in vain,” she said.
When contacted yesterday, state Commercial Crime Investigations Department (CCID) head Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah warned the public against being involved in such suspicious schemes, which might turn out to be scams.
Additionally, he advised those who felt that they had been cheated to remain calm, and that they should lodge police report over the matter to enable the relevant authorities to act.
“The ‘kootu’ scheme is under the jurisdiction of the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) the complainant could lodge a police report and police would refer the report to SSM,” Mustafa clarified.
Under the Kootu Funds (Prohibition) Act 1971, any registered business running anything resembling a ‘kootu’ fund scheme is liable to penalty of up to RM5,000 and/or a jail term of up to three years. It is learnt that under the Act, other terms similar to ‘kootu’ are ‘cheetu’, chit fund’, ‘hwei’ and ‘tontine’.