MUAR: A retiree lost her life savings in a bogus business deal that promised to multiply her money by 45 times with an investment of only RM2,000 in a cryptocurrency-related venture.
However, in the end the woman in her 50s lost both her savings and retirement money from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) totalling more than RM200,000.
It is learnt that the woman joined a social media group known as Cuba Untuk Berjaya (try to be successful) several days ago.
“The woman was told that it was a crypto-related investment that would give her RM90,000 in returns within hours after an initial investment amount of RM2,000,” sources said.
They added that there was a catch as the woman needed to pay up 10% of the returns earned as fees upfront while waiting for the total payment to be processed and banked into her account.
“The woman was reluctant but the scammers convinced her to pay up as they claimed her investment was growing into a huge amount almost RM2mil.
“They even showed her fake pictures of her investment growing into tens and thousands of ringgit by the hour,” the sources said, adding that the retiree was convinced that she would be getting her returns and therefore continued to transfer a total of RM200,000 in “fee payments” into various bank accounts.
It is learnt that she realised she was duped when she did not get her returns totalling more than RM2mil and decided to lodge a police report.
In another scam, a businessman who thought he was getting a good deal by purchasing gold bars at a discount, lost RM500,000 instead.
It is learnt that the businessman in his 40s was promised 2kg of gold bars for RM500,000.
(The price of gold is almost RM296,000 per kg).
The man withdrew his money and met with two men at a major hotel in the city.
“Once the businessman handed over the cash to the ‘buyer,’ the buyer then told him that the lobby area was too open and he will go upstairs to his room to count the cash and return with the gold bars.
The businessman and another man waited for some time in the before the other suspect disappeared on the pretext of going to the toilet, sources said.
After about five hours, the businessman checked with the hotel’s reservation team and was shocked to find out that they had no records of the seller staying at the hotel.
He then lodged a police report.
A police official confirmed both cases and said police were investigating the case under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
