Last year, the National Consumer Complaints Centre recorded 1,066 such complaints, and in the first half of this year, 733 cases have been noted.

�The two biggest amounts lost through this scam last year were RM20,000 and RM60,000,� said its director, Darshan Singh.

�Scratch-and-win has been around for about 30 years and although it has slowed down, it has not died out,� he said, adding that the trend is such that it will reappear in a different form after a while.

Darshan said NCCC had presented these figures to the authorities but what�s needed is an awareness campaign to educate people, similar to what the Government did with the skim cepat kaya (get rich quick scheme).