IPOH: A retired civil servant in Taiping lost more than RM1mil after falling victim to a Macau scam.
Perak police chief Comm Datuk Azizi Mat Aris said the 67-year-old woman was cheated by individuals who claimed to be from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the police.
Comm Azizi said the victim had on Aug 8 received a call from a woman who claimed to be from the MCMC, alleging that her bank card was involved in money laundering activities.
"The call was then connected to another person who identified himself as Sjn Tan Keng Seng who was said to be investigating the matter.
"The victim was further contacted by several other individuals who claimed to be from the Terengganu police contingent," he said in a statement on Thursday (Sept 12).
"The victim was instructed by one of the scammers to leave her bank automated teller machine (ATM) card in an envelope before leaving it at an address provided by them.
"The victim had later received a message from her bank indicating that money had been withdrawn from Aug 16 to 23 into two separate bank accounts," he said, adding that withdrawals were also made from an ATM.
"A total of RM476,550 was taken out from her bank account over 75 withdrawals," he added.
Comm Azizi said the victim was contacted again by the scammers to move her money to another bank account for the purpose of "investigation" and to prevent it from being frozen.
"The scammers also promised to return the money to her once the matter is settled.
"As the victim had believed the scammers, she also made transactions involving RM590,000 from her bank account into nine different bank accounts over 24 times," he said.
"After checking her bank statement, she found that she had lost more than RM1mil, and realised that she had been cheated," he said, adding that a report was lodged on Tuesday (Sept 10).
"The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating," he added.
Comm Azizi said the people are advised not to trust calls from unknown numbers easily.
"Do not panic when receiving such calls from people who identified themselves to be from any enforcement agencies. It is better not to entertain and to end these calls.
"Enforcement agencies will not connect calls to other agencies at the same time," he said.
"Should there be any doubts, check with the respective agencies and not call the numbers provided by the scammers.
"The people should never deposit money into the bank account of a stranger and never provide personal banking details to them," he said.
"Call the National Scam Response Centre at 997 to get verifications before doing any transaction," he added.
