JOHOR BARU: Educators, especially teachers, are now falling victim to scams in Johor, with 64 of them being duped of their life savings.
The total losses amounted to RM2.5mil in the past few months.
It is learnt that scam syndicates have been impersonating enforcement personnel targeting mainly female teachers. The pretext used includes insurance fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, criminal court cases and dubious investment schemes.
Sources said the scammers usually pretend to be policemen, court officials, insurance officers, Bank Negara officials, prosecutors and income tax officers.
It is learnt that some of the teachers were so afraid of being arrested or charged in court that they were willing to take up bank loans to “park” money in mule accounts.
When contacted, Johor police chief Comm Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat confirmed the many reports involving teachers in the last seven months.
“We urge the public to be careful, especially when it comes to online matters to avoid falling prey to such scams. They should also check the bank accounts and phone numbers with the Semak Mule online app,” he said.
It is learnt that the latest case occurred several days ago when a female teacher in her 30s lodged a report in Kulai alleging that she had lost more than RM700,000 to a dubious investment scheme.
The woman was enticed via WhatsApp with promises of high returns if she invested in shares.
Sources said a syndicate enticed the teacher into believing that everything was genuine by giving her high returns at the beginning.
However, the syndicate members disappeared once the teacher invested a larger sum of money.
In another case, a teacher in her 50s got a call several weeks ago from an “insurance official” about a fake medical claim totalling almost RM70,000.
“The teacher denied filing for the claim but the line was then connected to several people, including policewomen and female prosecutors, who threatened to arrest and charge the teacher for fraud,” the sources said.
The victim was also accused of involvement in money laundering and drug trafficking.
The teacher was directed to move her money in the bank.
When the syndicate found out that the teacher did not have enough money, they convinced her to take a RM200,000 bank loan.
“The teacher gave all the banking details to the suspects who then transferred out all her money totalling RM300,000,” the sources said.
Due to the high number of cases, the Johor police, Bank Negara and the state Education Department had started an awareness campaign to educate teachers in all 10 districts in Johor.
The programme, which is led by the Johor Commercial Crime Investigation Department, will be carried out until next month and has received tremendous response with almost 1,000 teachers signing up for it.
