KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Police can now stop transactions and seize money from bank accounts suspected of being mule accounts, the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) said today. Mr. Kulasegaran.

Addressing Parliament, Kulasegaran said this was possible after the amendments to the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code from July came into force on October 30, allowing the law to prevent the victim’s money be transferred to another account.

“This amendment allows police to not only seize but also prevent property from being used for further transactions in a bid to prevent victims of online scams’ money from being withdrawn from mule accounts.

“And will further complement the existing provisions, namely Article 435 of Law 593 (Criminal Procedure Code) regarding the power of the police to seize property suspected of being stolen, including fraud, which learns more on physical goods,” the Deputy Minister said in response to Question from Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng (Pakatan Harapan-DAP).

In response to Tumpat MP Mumtaz Md Nawi’s (Perikatan Nasional-PAS) supplementary question, Kulasegaran also said it was possible for victims to get their money back, citing a case in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

Police officers of sergeant rank or above will have the power to freeze transactions or seize money suspected of being involved in financial crimes.

However, the police can only freeze accounts if:

• There was reason to believe that an offense had been committed.
• There was reason to suspect that the property had been used or had been used for the purpose of committing an offence.
• There is reason to believe that the property constitutes evidence of an offense.

Additionally, he said a proposed online safety bill would require service providers of online platforms to remove content flagged as harmful and content suspected of being involved in financial crimes until an investigation is completed.

“Under the new bill, online financial crimes are classified as serious and will receive priority.

“If certain content is flagged as an online financial crime, platform providers have a responsibility to temporarily remove that content until further investigation is conducted,” Kulasegaran said.

The National Scam Response Center said it received 131,036 complaints between October 2022 and September 2024, and of that total, 52,836 were calls from victims of fraud and scams.

Singapore too recently introduced a bill allowing police to issue restriction orders to banks, restricting certain financial transactions for people suspected of falling prey to scams.

This bill would cover money transfers, use of ATMs as well as all credit facilities.