KUALA LUMPUR: Police are tracking down a scam offering discounts on outstanding Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) bill payments, which has so far seen seven cases reporting a loss of RM280,000.
Director of the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, the syndicate was spotted offering the service with a discount of 20 to 30 per cent through Facebook where victims would call a telephone number before sending a photo of the outstanding bill.
“The syndicate will then send a photo of the receipt purporting that the bill has been settled and instruct the victim to transfer money to an individual bank account. After the transfer, victims realise they have been cheated as the (TNB) bill was still outstanding,” he said at the JSJK office here today.
According to him, so far seven cases reported the same modus operandi causing a total loss of RM279,289 and the cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for fraud.
In a separate case, police detected a fraud tactic that impersonates an agent and offers the service of processing the return of money that the scammer defrauded or transferred to someone else’s account.
“There is actually no shortcut for this, whether through an agent or the like. In fact, the actual process of refund will take time because victims will be required to appear in court in the procedure set out under Section 413 of the Criminal Code,” Ramli said, adding that their money can be reclaimed three to six months after making a police report.
In addition, he said that since the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) was established on Oct 12, 2022, some 11,000 victims failed to make a police report after reporting to the centre, resulting in blocked money that could not be processed nor returned.
“Victims who call the NSRC regarding fraud cases must file a police report so that sanctions and refund actions can be completed,” said Ramli.
He said in the period from 2022 to July this year, RM46 million was blocked by the NSRC, of which RM510,000 was returned to the victims.
