JERTIH: A former teacher lost more than RM80,000 after falling victim to a scam involving a fake offer to open a TikTok Shop.
Besut police chief Supt Azamuddin Ahmad@Abu said the 67-year-old man came across the online business offer on Facebook on April 27.
“The victim was asked to send a copy of his MyKad and a selfie for account registration. Once the victim’s alleged TikTok Shop was set up, he was required to make an initial capital deposit for the online shop.
“He then made the initial deposit and received a small return. The victim, who had grown increasingly confident, went on to deposit further capital, making 13 transactions in total to seven different bank accounts provided by the suspect, amounting to RM82,600,” he said.
He added that after the final transaction last Sunday, the victim began to suspect he had been scammed when the suspect continued to demand more capital.
“The TikTok Shop is also believed to be fake as it was said to be using USD as the currency and, although orders frequently appeared in the system, no payments were ever received.
“The victim lodged a report yesterday. The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code,” he said.
According to a statement by TikTok Malaysia, users or merchants would never be requested to download the apps via external links or APK files.
“Please be informed that TikTok and TikTok Shop would never ask our users or merchants to download our apps via external links or APK files. All users are advised to only download our apps (which are listed by TikTok Pte. Ltd.) via our official website (TikTok – Make Your Day) and platforms, including the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Microsoft Store.”
