SEGAMAT: A 55-year-old housewife’s optimism turned into despair when her seemingly lucrative online purchase of precious stones from Vietnam turned out to be part of an elaborate scam.
Not only did the fraud victim not receive the so-called gemstones, she also lost her life savings.
The ordeal began when the victim stumbled upon a live presentation on social media last October, introducing her to an “opportunity”.
She was subsequently invited to join an exclusive group of 10 members and persuaded to invest RM50,000.
“The syndicate then told the woman and her team that if the stones were sent for testing and turned out to be jade, they would get a huge windfall,” sources said, adding that the syndicate later announced in the group that the gems were worth a whopping RM400mil and each member was entitled to RM40mil each.
However, there was a catch as each investor would need to pay taxes since the stones were allegedly mined in Vietnam.
Sources said the excited woman then withdrew all her savings, totalling more than RM350,000, and started depositing it into various accounts.
After waiting almost seven months without any sign of the promised windfall or the stones, the woman realised she had been duped and lodged a report several days ago.
In another scam case, a retired oil and gas engineer was swindled out of her savings of more than RM330,000 in a bogus business deal.
The incident occurred when the victim, in her 60s, befriended a couple – a Singaporean man and a local woman, in July 2021.
“The victim was then asked to become a partner in a company that specialises in business consultancy,” sources said, adding that the victim was promised a 15% return for each project.
Despite initial impressions and convincing paperwork, her investment yielded meagre returns of only about RM1,700 after six months.
Sources said the couple would always give excuses whenever the victim enquired about the business or its financial statements.
The woman lodged a report when she could no longer accept their excuses.
Iskandar Puteri OCPD Asst Comm M. Kumarasan said in a statement that the case was under investigation for cheating.
He cautioned the public to be wary when venturing into business and to especially not trust people whom they had only recently met.
