KUALA LUMPUR: Caught in a dire predicament, a 30-year-old bank employee found herself not only manipulated into becoming an accomplice for a phone scam syndicate but also narrowly escaping police custody.
She was arrested following a police report lodged on Oct 28 by another victim, who claimed to have been defrauded of RM138,000 by the same syndicate.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, revealed that the victim had received a call from individuals posing as representatives of an e-commerce company, falsely accusing him of using his phone number for illegal activities.
“The call was then routed to several imposters pretending to be police officers, who instructed him to transfer RM38,000 to a specified account and deliver RM100,000 in cash to an individual in person,” Ramli said during a press conference today.
Investigation into the report led to the arrest of the bank employee, identified as the person who met the victim to facilitate the in-person cash transaction.
Ramli said that further investigation found, however, that the woman was also a victim of the same syndicate.
She had been instructed to meet the victim, while the entire RM100,000 was transferred into four separate bank accounts as directed by the syndicate.
“The woman had been contacted by the phone scam syndicate in August and was forced to report to them every three hours. She was also coerced into taking out an RM89,000 loan and depositing the money into bank accounts specified by the syndicate,“ he said.
Ramli added that the woman was released on police bail, and efforts are ongoing to identify other members of the syndicate.
In a separate development, Ramli announced that 11 individuals, including two women, were arrested in connection with the Gigamax cryptocurrency investment scam, which resulted in losses of RM7.25 million.
The arrests were made as part of Op Nuri - Gigamax carried out on Nov 13 in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pahang, Kelantan, Terengganu, and Melaka.
Among those arrested were senior managers of an investment academy, which also functioned as a non-governmental organisation, that had been allegedly promoting and introducing Gigamax, a cryptocurrency broker platform, since July 2022.
“After operating for nearly a year, the platform became inaccessible, and all profit withdrawals were halted, leading investors to file police reports,“ Ramli explained.
He further noted that, since June 27, 2023, a total of 101 police reports have been filed regarding the platform, with total losses amounting to RM7,259,136.44. The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
