A man from Germany found himself becoming millions of Ringgit poorer after he was duped by a group of scammers pretending to be Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) officers.
As a result, he lost a whopping RM3 million in the end.
German man loses RM3mil to scammers
According to Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan, he said the 69-year-old victim had received an email from the scammers, who told him they were officers from LHDN and BNM, reported NST.
In the email, they instructed the victim to open a Malaysian bank account so that funds could be deposited into it. They also said if he wanted to gain access to the account, he had to pay taxes to LHDN and BNM.
Completely believing it to be true, the victim transferred a total of RM3,089,800 into a company’s bank account through 25 transactions.
Hussein said the German national fell for the scam as the suspects had produced “official-looking documentation”.
Another scam case
In a separate incident, Hussein said a 54-year-old Malaysian company manager was cheated of RM2.65 million in an investment scheme.
Investigations found that he was drawn to the scheme after seeing an advertisement on Facebook promoting an investment opportunity via ‘baird.com’.
After clicking on the link, he was directed to a WhatsApp conversation and spoke to an individual named ‘Wendy Wong’, who purportedly was an instructor in the scheme.
After the investment was explained to him, the victim was added to a WhatsApp group and was involved in the scheme for two months. He was eventually told to register as a new investor on a platform called ‘tpeusr.com’.
Initially, the victim received an early return of RM100,000, which increased his confidence. He subsequently made 44 money transfers amounting to RM2,652,000 into nine different bank accounts.
“After all the transactions were completed, the victim saw that his supposed profits had reached nearly RM8 million on the platform and attempted to withdraw the funds.
“However, he was asked to pay various tax charges in order to receive the money, before eventually realising he had been scammed and had lost RM2,652,000,” said Hussein as quoted by the English daily.
Both cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
While most scams leave its victims penniless, one shocking case led to the victim ending her own life:
