SHAH ALAM: A transport company manager lost RM1.6 million after being cheated by a ‘love scam’ syndicate led by foreigners from African countries.
Shah Alam district police chief ACP Baharudin Mat Taib said the victim, a 62-year-old woman, claimed that she had forged a close relationship with a man who claimed to be an American via Facebook, for the last six months.
“In those six months, the suspect had asked the woman to make payments into several accounts belonging to the locals for the purpose of helping the suspect who claimed to have suffered losses in his business.”
“The suspect later told the victim that his friend ‘Calvin’ had been arrested by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department with a bag full of money, meant for the victim and asked the victim to make some payments to the Customs to help release the friend,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters at a press conference at Shah Alam district police headquarters, here today.
Baharudin said the victim had met ‘Calvin’ at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the matter and made payment in stages to obtain the promised money.
However, the victim then felt that she was being deceived and lodged a police report on April 14.
“Based on information and intelligence gathered, the police arrested three suspects, aged 34 to 36, one of them is from Ghana while the other two are from the Republic of Guinea, at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday (April 17).
“The police also seized RM30,000 cash, a luxury car, several luxury watches, laptop and mobile phone, with the total of seizures worth RM200,000,” he said.
He said the case was investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code which provides maximum imprisonment of up to 10 years, whipping and liable to a fine, upon conviction. — Bernama
