KUALA LUMPUR: A retiree lost RM70,000 after falling victim to a phone scam syndicate which is becoming more cunning when its member posed as a police officer in a face-to-face meeting with the victim.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said that on Jan 15, a 61-year-old woman was contacted by the suspect who claimed that her phone number had been registered for a Shopee account selling unregistered beauty products.
He said the call was then transferred to a police officer, who alleged that the victim had criminal records, was involved in illegal activities and all her accounts would be frozen.
“To avoid her accounts from being frozen, she was told to transfer all her money to a bank account provided by the syndicate.
“The next day (Jan 16), the suspect, who was wearing a face mask, went to the retiree’s house and introduced himself as ‘Inspt Akmal’ and asked her to hand over her Bank Islam automated teller machine (ATM) card for him to transfer the money from her account to another safe bank account,” he told a media conference here today.
Ramli said that on Jan 18, the suspect returned to the victim’s house to return her Bank Islam ATM card and told her to hand over her Maybank card for the same purpose.
“On Jan 20, the suspect contacted the victim and told her to transfer all her money from her ASB account to her Maybank account. But she became suspicious and related the incident to her family members, who explained to her that she had been scammed,” he said.
He said a report was lodged in Kota Kinabalu on Jan 21 and the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
Ramli reiterated that government agencies do not practice inter-agency call transfers.
“So far, no calls from Bank Negara Malaysia have been transferred to the police or courts. In this case, it was supposedly from Shopee to the police.
“As such, if you receive any dubious calls and transferred from one agency to another, then that is a scam. Immediately hang up to avoid becoming a scam victim,” he said.
