BUKIT MERTAJAM: A single mother here lost nearly RM1 million after falling victim to a love scam syndicate recently.

Seberang Perai Tengah district police chief, ACP Shafee Abd Samad, said the 58-year-old account clerk at a supermarket here claimed that she had befriended a man, who claimed to be from the United States (US), via Instagram in April 2019.

"The man introduced himself as William Schang before they exchanged telephone numbers and formed a romantic relationship online.

"The suspect then began asking the woman for financial assistance for his oil exploration business in the US with the promise to return the money with interest.

"The victim believed him and transferred a total of RM927,400 through 50 bank transactions into five local bank accounts provided by the suspect between April 9, 2019, and February last year," he said when contacted here today.

Shafee said the woman was believed to have withdrawn all her savings, including from the Employees Provident Fund, to be given to the suspect and only realised that she had been cheated after failing to contact him.

"She lodged a police report yesterday and further investigations are ongoing to trace the owner of the bank accounts used by the syndicate," he said.

He said police also did not rule out the possibility that the suspect could have used account mules for the transactions after checks showed four of the five accounts had been reported in cheating cases in other states.

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

-- BERNAMA