IN this day and age, we’ve all heard of the Macau scam. The modus operandi is as such, a con artist impersonates a bank or a government official to deceive you into disclosing your personal banking information or to lure you into sending money to false accounts.
A woman recently suffered significant financial losses after being duped into transferring funds into multiple bank accounts in order to avoid punishment for a crime she didn’t commit.
Azman Ahmad Sapri, the police commissioner for Sarawak, was quoted saying that the 55-year-old woman received a call on May 22 from a man from Putrajaya, who said that she had registered her phone number in Kota Kinabalu on purpose to damage the reputation of the Health Ministry.
She was informed that she was suspected of participating in money laundering when she was transferred to two more con artists posing as fake sergeants.
The victim then proceeded to transfer her funds to numerous accounts in an effort to “aid” investigations out of panic.
Up to that point, RM 881,000 had been moved from her EPF account and RM 300,000 from her personal bank account.
She was furthermore forced to hand over her online banking login information to the fictitious inspectors and destroy her three ATM cards.
She was not aware that she had just been a victim of the Macau scam until she revealed it to her spouse.
After getting in touch with the bank, her husband discovered that a total of RM 1.8 million had been stolen from the three bank accounts.
The crime investigation team is currently looking into the ongoing problem after the victim filed a police report.
