Off The Cuff - The only scam without victims

HARDLY a day passes without newspapers publishing sob stories of victims of scams. The latest was the arrest of several men and women from a country (which I shall not name) but which is rather notorious for such activity. They were nabbed for what's known as the "cyberlove" scam where the victims are mainly lonely women looking for "Mr Right".
There was a news report last year of one divorcee who sold her bungalow to buy the love of one online imposter, who promised to marry her, without even meeting the man.
If the Guinness Book of World Records were to have a category ranking such scams, Malaysia would certainly be featured prominently.
If Datuk Seri Michael Chong, who heads the Public Complaints Bureau of the MCA, wants to write about the victims of such scams, who have sought his help over the years, his books would run into volumes.
I once dropped by Chong's office at Wisma MCA to see him in action.
I spoke to one victim. The woman told me she was duped into paying RM12,000 by instructing her bank to transfer the money into the account of a man who phoned her and asked her to listen to the screams of a girl. The man had told her that it was her daughter and that he had kidnapped her.
She was told by a bank officer that the man's bank account originated from overseas but due to the desperate situation, the money was duly transferred.
Only later did she call her daughter who said nothing had happened to her and she was in her office.
From all these reports, Malaysians come across as a most vulnerable lot when it comes to scams.
But the one scam where the perpetrators seem to have got away with impunity for the longest time are those peddling fake Datukships.
There is a stark difference between this category of scams and all the others put together – here strictly speaking, there are no victims. In fact, the "victims" are the beneficiaries who happily and willingly pay large sums of money to quench their thirst for honorific titles.
This is where I can imagine lies the difficulty faced by the police to act on such scams because those who paid for these fake titles would only be exposing themselves publicly if they make a report.
And in doing so, they would also become a laughing stock if their relatives, friends and business associates were to discover that their Datukships were illegally obtained by paying a lot of money.
For the public at large, there's hardly a way for them to verify if someone's title is legit or fake.
The desire to call oneself a Datuk or Datuk Seri among so many people in our society both through legitimate and illegal means is a uniquely Malaysian phenomenon that baffles foreigners.
Malaysians are even known to have been awarded titles from non-existent sultans in the southern Philippines and some regions in Indonesia. Of course, it's not for free.
We have the most number of titled people compared perhaps with all other countries combined.
And it's due to this that there are many syndicates selling such titles, including those who claim to represent royal households.
I frequently receive WhatsApp texts from a prominent person in Sibu who posts pictures of newspaper advertisements of award recipients, whom he claims, "bought"such titles. And many of them have dubious records.
"It's a thriving business over here," he said.
There have over the years police reports been made, not by the "happy recipients" of course, but against some relatives of the royalty who also dished out such awards.
The media had also reported on one man, claiming to be a descendant of the defunct Malacca sultanate, who conducted an "investiture ceremony" to present such Datukships.
It used to take place in Negri Sembilan and Kelantan as well.
Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah of Perak revealed on Tuesday that the police have identified individuals, including those with ties to Perak royalty, who are directly involved in the sale of illegal state awards.
He wants the authorities to take stern and unbiased action against these people.
"The law should be enforced fairly without any special treatment or immunity for anyone. Those proven guilty should face their punishment. If the authorities keep quiet and do not take any action to rectify the matter, it can be interpreted as encouraging these offences to continue," said the sultan.
The authorities especially the police should take the cue from the Perak ruler by coming out with more effective mechanisms to stamp out this activity. Perhaps even a special task force is needed to get to the bottom of it.
Of course at the end of day, it's a supply and demand thing and with big money involved, greed will always prevail.
The sultan wants the law to be amended to provide for a heavier penalty to stop such activity to prevent tarnishing the image of the royal institution.
According to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azlina Othman Said, such a law would be tabled in Parliament in due course.
Let us all hope that it's the beginning of such long over-due effective punitive action.
The public could also play their part by becoming whistle-blowers if they are sure that some title holders in their midst have fake ones.
As the sultan says, such illegal activities are belittling the status bestowed upon the legitimate recipients as any state award can only come from the state ruler.
People who carry such fake titles need also to have some conscience and perhaps some sense of shame because they are not only cheating themselves but others as well.
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