Being a Malaysian Indian is apparently a good indication that you are unlikely to fall for a scam. Police have found that potential victims from the ethnic group are more than likely to frustrate scammers with a barrage of questions.

Malaysians lost an estimated 2.7 billion ringgit (US$684 million) to online scams last year alone, according to data from cybersecurity firm Fortinet Malaysia – a 76 per cent increase from the previous year – as syndicates adopt increasingly sophisticated methods that exploit digital payment systems to redirect transactions.

The losses correlated with a sharp spike in online scam content. On Tuesday, the communications ministry revealed that over 98,500 scam-related posts were taken down in 2025, significantly higher than the 63,652 posts removed a year earlier.

But the loss was lower among the Indian community, according to police in Penang state.

Data gathered by the Penang Commercial Crime Department (CCID) found that just a little over 7 per cent or 381 of the 5,090 scam cases reported in the island state last year involved Indian victims despite being equally targeted by scammers across racial groups.

This was because they would often “respond with a barrage of questions”, Penang CCID deputy chief Pang Meng Tuck said, as quoted by local Chinese newspaper Sin Chew Daily.