Crimes involving virtual money, or crypto-currencies, are on the rise, and victims in Malaysia are suffering bigger losses to scammers and cybercriminals.

From RM4.9 million in 2019, the total amount of losses from victims have more than tripled to RM18.3 million as of September this year, based on police statistics made available to Sunday Star.

For the past three years, a total of 500 investigation papers were opened to probe these incidents.

Each year, more cases are reported, with the number of investigation papers rising from 131 in 2019 to 225 as of September this year.

"The most common type of crime involving cryptocurrencies are scams that deal with buying and selling these digital currencies.

"Cases usually happen when victims pay the suspects to buy cryptocurrency but do not get anything in return," says Bukit Aman Commercial Crime, Cryptocurrency Crime Investigation Unit Officer, ASP Nur Adli Md Saari.

Read further on The Star's article attached.