SEREMBAN: For almost 10 months, a Macau scam syndicate persistently worked its ruse on a 43-year-old female teacher until she lost over RM265,000.
A bulk of the cash she lost was from two bank loans she had taken on the instructions of the scammers.
Strangely, it is puzzling as to why the woman from Johor never confided her ordeal with anyone and kept mum throughout the months.
Her troubles began in June last year when she received a call purportedly from an insurance company that sought to “verify an insurance claim” the teacher had submitted.
After the woman denied making any insurance claim, the caller told her that the insurance company will proceed to lodge a police report on the matter.
On the same day, the woman received a call from a man who identified himself as a police sergeant from the Ampangan Jaya police station.
After verifying her name and MyKad number, the scammer accused the teacher of being involved in money laundering with a director of the Sabah Water Department, claiming there were illegal funds in 13 bank accounts.
The following day, the woman was contacted by a “police inspector” who ordered her to transfer cash into a bank account of her own which she rarely used as “funds to settle the case.”
Negri Sembilan police commercial crimes investigations department chief Supt Aibee Ab Ghani said the victim disclosed details of her bank account to the scammer and was ordered to “stay in touch” with the scammers through the WhatsApp application for the next five months.
He said in October last year, the victim began depositing cash into her bank account that she had exposed to the scammers.
“She took two bank loans amounting to RM200,000 as instructed by the scammers and deposited it into the account together with RM65,225 of her own funds. This was done in nine trasactions between late October last year and March 26 this year.” Aibee said.
He said on Friday, the woman learnt that her funds had been wiped out with only RM78 left in her account.
Aibee said on Monday the victim did further checks with the bank in Kuala Pilah and found out that her funds had been transferred to an unknown account through online transactions.
He said the victim lodged a police report and claimed that she had never registered for an online banking facility for the said account.
Aibee said investigations were initiated and are ongoing.