Retiree loses more than RM600,000 to Macau scam

JOHOR BAHRU: A retiree here was cheated of RM652,500 by a man claiming to be a police officer who accused him of taking prohibited medicines and being involved in money laundering.

Johor Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief ACP Amran Md Jusin said the Macau scam syndicate member had threatened the 68-year-old victim that his bank account would be investigated and audited because of this.

The victim was also told that there was a High Court order compelling him to cooperate with the police and to transfer all his money into a given account for investigation purposes, he said in a statement today.

"Without making any checks, the victim then transferred his savings of RM652,500 via 22 transactions between May 11 and June 5 this year to a local bank account given by the man.

"The victim only realised he had been cheated after he told his son about the matter. The victim lodged a police report at the Nusa Bestari police station yesterday," he said.

Amran advised the public not to believe so-called enforcement officers who asked them to transfer their money into other accounts.

Anyone who received such calls should check with the CCID's 'Portal Semak Mule' website, CCID Scam Response Centre, CCID Infoline and CCID Facebook, he added.

-- BERNAMA