PETALING JAYA: A 41-year-old bookkeeper fell victim to an email scam, causing her to lose over RM321,000 of her company’s funds.
According to The Star, Batu Pahat acting district police chief Supt Shahrulanuar Mushaddat Abdullah Sani said the woman received an email from an alleged international company on March 27, claiming to update her company about a change in bank account number.
“In the email, the victim was told to make a payment of US$94,555 (RM448,215) for shipping container rental to a new bank account.
“The woman transferred the amount from her company’s bank account to the foreign bank account six days later on April 2 without checking the legitimacy of the account,” he was quoted as saying.
After transferring the funds, the victim contacted the company’s representative to confirm receipt of the payment. It was then that she discovered the email was fraudulent.
“According to the company representative, they had never sent out any memo via email about changing their bank account number.
“By then, the victim had also realised that the email address from the March 27 email was a fake one,” he stated.
He mentioned the victim immediately contacted the local bank to cancel the transaction.
However, the bank was only able to retrieve US$26,108 (RM122,709), leaving her employer with a loss of US$68,446 (RM321,698).
The case is currently being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
Shahrulanuar urged the public, especially those involved in business transactions, to be alert when handling emails that involve money transfers.
“Please verify and do the necessary checks before making a payment,” he advised.
