MIRI: A civil servant from Brunei lost RM153,500 to a ‘Parcel Scam’ syndicate believed to be active in Sarawak.
State Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah said the victim, a woman aged 31 lodged a police report here yesterday after realising that she had been duped.
“The victim came to know a man who introduced himself as Zacky from United States through WhatsApp in June 2019,” he said in a statement today.
He said the man had promised the victim that he would send a parcel of jewellery to her and indeed, the victim was contacted this month by someone purportedly from the Customs Department informing her that there was a parcel for her but which was being held back.
“In order to release the parcel, the victim was required to pay the tax and insurance on it and processing fee for delivery to Brunei,“ he said.
Mustafa Kamal said the victim made three payments on Aug 13 and Aug 21 to two Malaysian bank accounts.
It was only when she realised the absurdity of the amount she had paid did the victim inform her husband, he said.
Meanwhile, he said 66 cases of parcel scams were reported between Jan 1 and Aug 26 this year involving RM3.4 million in losses. In the same period, 15 arrests had been made. — Bernama
