Despite the many warnings that the authorities have given to Malaysians about scams, many still continue to fall for the same tricks at a great personal cost.
A man in his 50s definitely learnt this lesson the hard way after he was cheated of close to RM1 million by a scammer pretending to be a police officer, reported Berita Harian.
Received a call from ‘Sergeant Tan’
According to a statement by Alor Gajah district police chief Superintendent Arshad Abu, he said police received a report from the victim, a retail trader, about the incident on Tuesday (Jan 9).
Initial investigations found that the victim received a call from a man named ‘Sergeant Tan’, who claimed to be an officer from Perak last month.
“In the call, the suspect claimed there was a case involving a bank manager who had stopped working and was involved in fraudulent activities using the victim’s bank account,” he said.
M’sian man loses close to RM1mil to scammer
Although the victim denied being involved, he was instructed by the suspect to follow his instructions if he wanted to avoid getting arrested.
Arshad said the victim was told to leave his ATM bank card and bank account number without having to meet the suspect at a location in Simpang Ampat on December 20.
“On January 3, the victim was instructed to open a RM420,000 bank cheque under the name of a company owned by the suspect, which the victim did so at a bank cheque machine in Alor Gajah.
When the victim went to check his bank account days later, he was shocked to see that a total of RM502,300.87 had been transferred to another bank account between December 21 and January 8. This resulted in a total loss of RM922,300.87.
“On Jan 9, the suspect called the victim again and asked him to make another transaction. This time, the victim ignored him as he realised he had been scammed,” he said.
Arshad said a report was subsequently lodged at the Simpang Ampat Police Station and the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
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