RECENTLY, a scam victim, Puterinajia, took to her Instagram account to share how she was hypnotised into transferring money to a scammer after she had answered a phone call from a scammer claiming to be with the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN), Malaysia Trend reports.
“On 25 May, around 11am, I received an automated phone call from LHDN regarding unpaid taxes. Seeing that I have had recent past conversations with LHDN on the phone regarding my company’s tax issues, I figured the call was related to that.
“I stayed on the line to talk to the officer and that was when I believe I was hypnotised. To make it short, without realising it, I was already on the phone with the scammer for 3 hours, I disclosed all private details regarding my business, home address and more, walked to the ATM while being on the phone with him, and transferred money to the scammer.
“He told me what to do from the beginning, to the point where I keyed in the account number as instructed, and just like that, I transferred RM12,000 to him”, she explained.
While hypnotised, she followed the scammer’s instructions blatantly.
“8 hours later, I went out for dinner with my parents at around 8:30pm and that was when I was finally ‘conscious’ and aware of what has happened.
“I panicked and straight away checked my bank account balance, and that was when I realised I gave my money away. I did not remember anything about the bank transfer until 8 hours later,“ she added.
She hopes that by sharing her story, the general public will be more vigilant of all these different methods scammers are using and will be more careful in the future.
