While scammers are coming up with the latest techniques to cause victims to part with their money, their modus operandi is somewhat the same, where they will prey upon and exploit the victim’s emotions to fleece them.
A university lecturer was left heartbroken and RM2.5 million poorer after she unwittingly divulged all of her banking details to a scammer posing as an “insurance agent”.
M’sian lecturer loses RM2.5 million to scammer
According to Pahang police chief Datuk Yahaya Othman, the 52-year-old university lecturer received a call on Jan 22 from a person claiming to be an insurance agent, who then told her that she was involved in making false claims and money laundering.
However, the suspect allayed her fears by telling her that he could help get her out of the situation. He also instructed her to open two new bank accounts for investigation purposes.
“The victim was also told to transfer all her savings into the two new bank accounts, which she promptly did so by transferring her savings and unit trust investment funds.
However, the suspect demanded for more cash to ‘avoid legal action’, prompting the victim to take a bank loan,” he said as quoted by NST.
Yahaya added that the victim was also pressured into divulging her bank information and photos of her bank cards and online banking passwords.
The victim finally came to her senses and realised that she was cheated after she was unable to contact the “insurance agent” and found out that the money in the two bank accounts were not being returned to her.
In the end, she lost a whopping RM2,576,781 in total.
Yahaya said the victim subsequently lodged a police report over the matter on Wednesday (May 17) and the case is being probed under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
He also advised the public to be wary of phone calls coming from suspicious parties and to always crosscheck at https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my before proceeding with any transaction.
Scams can also come in the form of a haircut, as this British couple found out:
