Nursery owner scammed out of RM300,000 in 10 days

The police are gathering details of the owners of eight commercial bank accounts used by a company to scam a nursery operator out of about RM300,000 recently.

Melaka Commercial CID chief Supt Ee Khong Koy said the accounts, owned by locals, were used to transfer the money to the Hong Kong-based company for a period of 10 days from April 8.

He said the victim, a 36-year-old woman from Semabok, was duped into the scam after she was told that she had won the third prize lucky draw for buying a RM8,800 watch via the internet from the company in September last year.

"The victim was informed by the company of her winning over the phone on April 8 and offered five air tickets to the South Pole and Argentina.

"However, she refused them. She was then offered RM150,000 as a replacement and instructed to make several transactions to different accounts as legal fees, apart from being offered to invest in a stock company in Europe that could generate more than RM3 million in two days," he told reporters here today.

Meanwhile, Ee said the police were looking for a receptionist of a hotel in Bandar Hilir here, Siti Norakmal Abdullah, 23, from Pontian, Johor to help in an investigation into the alleged use of a credit card left behind by an Indonesian tourist amounted to RM8,800.

He said the 55-year-old female tourist was said to have left her credit card after paying a deposit for her stay at the hotel on April 21.

"The suspect has since been missing from work and nine transactions for branded clothing amounted to RM8,800 had been through the credit card on April 22 and 23," he said, adding that the tourist discovered the fraud after informing a bank in Jakarta about the loss of her credit card.

Those with information about Siti Norakmal can call Melaka CID intelligence and operation officer ASP Hasbullah Abd Rahman at 019-2229996.