Malaysia plans to raise the penalty for promoters of get-rich schemes by four-fold to 10 million ringgit (US$2.63 million) and 10-year jail, a report said yesterday.
Thousands of Malaysians have lost their life savings to such schemes, domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry parliamentary secretary Wong Kam-hoong was quoted as saying by the
"We are really concerned about the increasing number of people being conned by such businesses despite moves to curb these illegal schemes," Wong said.
"We have banned some 30 direct-selling businesses found to be involved in elements of cheating and will continue to monitor those still in operation."
Amendments to the Direct Selling Act to be tabled in June would introduce the stiffer terms for offenders, he added.
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