Teacher loses RM48,250 to online scammer

BESUT: A teacher paid a heavy price for befriending and trusting an acquaintance on Facebook and WhatsApp when she was cheated off RM48,250 early this month.
Besut police chief Supt Mohd Zamri Mohd Rowi said the teacher claimed she only realised she had been duped after making 11 transactions into two different bank accounts, beginning Oct 11.
"On Oct 11, the acquaintance was said to have gone to Sarawak and from there, asked the victim to put the money into two accounts of a bank in separate names, on the pretext of obtaining an automated teller machine (ATM) card from a bank branch in Miri.
"The teacher readily agreed and put the money into the two accounts," he told the media here today.
Subsequently, when the acquaintance insisted the victim send more money to him, the teacher smelled a rat and lodged a police report.
Meanwhile in a separate incident, a doctor lost RM29,800 when responding to an e-mail message purportedly from a bank, directing her to update her account last Saturday.
Mohd Zamri said the 52-year-old victim then updated her account through the website and also provided a Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) as requested.
He said the victim later found that RM29,800 from her account had been transferred to a bank account in a certain name after updating her account as instructed. — Bernama