Woman cheated of more than RM20k by sweet talking Casanova
KUALA LUMPUR: A woman was cheated of more than RM20,000 after falling for a sweet talking Casanova she met on an online messaging application.
The 37-year-old executive who simply wanted to be known as Linda, lodged two police reports against the man known as Vick, 33.
She said that she had met Vick last year on the messaging app in April.
"We became closer through the app and in the same month he proposed to me. I didn't believe him at first, I told my family I would get to know him first. He promised me a lot of things," she said during a press conference accompanied by MCA Public Service and Complaints Department chairman Datuk Seri Michael Chong.
Things then became a little strange when Vick said he needed Linda's help to expand his logistics business in Ipoh.
Reluctantly, Linda followed Vick to a money lender and obtained a RM7,000 loan for him.
"I told him that I was afraid but he reassured me nothing will happen and forced me to take the loan," she said.
Not stopping there, Vick also forced Linda to take out an RM10,000 personal loan from a bank as he needed more money for his business.
Linda made him promise that he would pay back the cash in RM900 installments every month when he had the money, she had also given him cold hard cash totaling RM4,170.
In November last year, Linda's suspicions were aroused when several cheques that Vick had given to her as part of his payback had bounced.
"He went missing after that, I could not find him. I tried to search for clues on Facebook and I found that he was married. When I contacted his wife, she claimed that she was married to him for three years," she said.
Linda claims that all she wants is her money back. She now has to pay back all the loans she took out for Vick.
Linda said she hopes that her story will be a lesson to other women to be weary when meeting strangers online.
Chong said that he had already received two complaints from women who are in a similar fix as Linda and he believes that the same man is behind the other two cases.