Malacca, which suffered devastating floods earlier this year, has lost thousands of dollars in flood aid to false claims.

Malacca's Chief Minister Mohamad Ali Rustam said the state had handed over RM698,400 in flood aid to more than 3,000 families who had made multiple or fraudulent claims.

"Taking advantage of the situation is not right and the money was to be used to help others who needed it," he was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times .

Offenders made claims for vacant houses or for homes where they were not living, and also amended their names or addresses to make multiple applications, Mohamad Ali said.

He appealed for the offenders to return the money and threatened to hold back further funds for damage to furniture.

"We may hold back this payment if they do not return the money," he said.

Two waves of devastating floods concentrated mostly in Malaysia's south killed 18 people, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and caused damage worth at least RM1.5 billion earlier this year.