JOHOR BAHRU: A 62-year-old man who is also the owner of a hardware store suffered losses of RM3.4 million after falling victim to a fixed deposit scam.

Johor police chief CP M Kumar said the victim claimed that in January 2018 he was offered to participate in the scheme with attractive interest rates by a local woman claiming to be working as a manager of a banking institution in Kuala Lumpur.

“The man made payments through several cheques amounting to RM3.4 million from April 3, 2019, to March 23, 2023, made to the banking institution and the cheques were handed over to the woman at the victim’s company.

“The victim once received RM70,000 in interest in 2020 and did not suspect anything, but later became suspicious in January this year after the woman gave the victim various excuses when he wanted to withdraw the returns of the investments,” he said in a statement today.

He added that the victim visited the banking institution and found that the payment receipts given to him by the woman were fake and there was no fixed deposit account under his or his company’s name.

“All payments made by the victim to the woman were also found to have been deposited into another individual’s account,” he said, adding that the victim lodged a police report on Sunday (May 5) and the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.