Macau scam: Sibu accounts clerk loses RM101,000

Sibu district police chief, ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit today said the victim who lives in a residential area in Jalan Satria, here, realised that he had been cheated after making 12 payment transactions into six bank accounts owned by different individuals.

"It all started when the victim received a call at 8.30 am that day from a man claiming to be a Telekom Malaysia officer and stating that the victim had arrears for the telephone number 09-5136911 in Kuantan, Pahang amounting to RM537.45," he said in a statement, here.

According to Stanley, the victim was then connected to a "policeman", Sergeant Johari who purportedly checked and found that the victim was involved in a money laundering case.

The victim also received a call from another "policeman", Sergeant Albert Lai who said they would investigate.

The fraudsters continued to mount pressure on the victim by sending a message through a man named Tuan Ling who said that his team had sent a warrant of arrest and an order to freeze assets in the victim's name.

The man then sent another alleged notice from the National Audit Department in which the victim was told to make a payment of RM12,800 for them to conduct an investigation into whether the alleged amount was actually owed or not.

As a result, the victim made six payment transactions of RM12,800, RM50,000, RM5,000, RM18,500, RM10,000 and RM4,700 respectively into the accounts provided by the syndicate.

"The victim who then realised that he had been cheated lodged a report at the Sibu central police station on Saturday. The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating," said Stanley.