ALOR STAR: A 40-year-old woman lost RM129,290 after being duped by a Macau Scam syndicate on Aug 7.
Kedah Commercial Crime Investigation Department head, Supt Annuar Amri Abd Muluf said the victim, an assistant manager of a steel mill in Kulim, had received a phone call from the suspect who identified himself as ‘Sergeant Chew’.
“The victim was informed by the suspect that she had been involved in money laundering and would be arrested.
“However, the suspect told the victim that the matter could be resolved and asked the victim to list her bank accounts and asked the victim to transfer all her money to another account provided by the suspect,“ he said in a statement here today.
According to Annuar Amri, the suspect also threatened the victim not to report the matter or she would be arrested and the case could not be resolved.
He said the panicked victim followed the instructions given by the suspect in which she made five transactions worth RM50,670, RM64,800, RM3,520, RM3,700 and RM6,600 into two accounts provided by the suspect between Aug 7 and 10.
“All of the money was the victim’s savings for having worked in several factories. After the money was transferred, the suspect promised to return the money within three days of the ‘investigation’. However, after the three days, the suspect could not be reached,” he said.
Sensing that she had been duped, the victim lodged a police report at the Kulim District Police Headquarters yesterday and the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for fraud.
Annuar Amri advised the public not to be deceived by calls from individuals who claimed to be the police or any law enforcement agency as the authorities do not conduct investigations by telephone and would not ask members of the public to transfer money to any account.
Annuar Amri said from Jan to July this year, 113 investigative papers involving the same modus operandi were opened in the state involving losses of RM2.9 million. — Bernama
