In this day and age, scammers will go to great lengths to fool or scare victims into believing that they’ve broken the law before cheating them of their money.
A retiree in Johor was taught a painful lesson after she was duped into thinking that she had committed fraud, only to be left RM202,800 poorer in the end.
Received call from ‘BNM officer’
NST reported that the unfortunate incident happened to a 71-year-old retiree, who received a text message notifying her of a RM110,000 charge on her credit card.
When she called the number provided in the text message, she found herself talking to a woman claiming to be an officer from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
During the conversation, the ‘BNM officer’ told the victim that her bank account would be frozen and action would be taken against her as she was believed to have conspired with scammers. She was also told that a police report was lodged as well.
However, the ‘BNM officer’ assured the victim that a senior police officer from federal police would help her as she was a senior citizen and had gained sympathy from the officer.
71yo M’sian retiree loses RM202K to scammer
The call was then transferred to an ‘officer’ named Inspector Loh Thee How, who told the victim he would assist her in recovering the RM110,000 credit card charge and asked for her banking details.
As a result, the victim divulged her RHB Bank account details and made five transfers totaling RM202,800 between July 13 and 14 to CIMB and Hong Leong bank accounts.
When she finally realised that she was cheated, she filed a police report on July 15, which was confirmed by Johor police chief Commissioner Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat.
The case is currently being probed under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating, which provides an imprisonment of up to 10 years, whipping, and a fine.
If you receive a suspicious call or text and believe it’s a scam, you can verify if it’s one via https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my.
Aside from phone scams, some have also resorted to fleecing people via food orders too:
