Teacher claims losing RM438,900 to Macau scam

Pahang Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Supt Mohd Wazir Mohd Yusof said the victim, 44, claimed she was contacted by a man who was allegedly a representative of an insurance company in early August, to investigate a fraudulent claim of RM76,000 in her name.

When the victim denied the allegation, the suspect told her to phone a male police officer based at the Ampang District Police Headquarters (IPD) in Kuala Lumpur who was handling the case of fund misuse under the victim's name.

"The second suspect when contacted claimed that the victim's name was also linked to a money-laundering investigation amounting to RM2.8 million, and instructed her to open a new bank account with a sum of RM600,000 for 'bail' purposes.

"The victim claimed to have then opened the account but was only able to raise RM439,032 while the suspect then instructed the victim to submit all (her) banking information for investigation purposes," he said in a statement here today.

Mohd Wazir said the victim then claimed a subsequent check with her bank on Monday (Dec 20) discovered that her account was only left with a balance of RM132.31, apart from the fact that there were many online money transfers transacted to an unknown account.

The victim tried to get an explanation from the 'police officer', but claimed the phone number was no longer in use.

The victim duly lodged a report at the Nenasi Police Station in Pekan whereupon further investigation is being carried out under Section 420 of the Penal Code which provides for a maximum jail term of 10 years with whipping and fine, if convicted.

Meanwhile, in SEREMBAN, Negeri Sembilan CCID chief Supt Aibee Ab Ghani said a 66-year-old retired employee of an oil and gas company in Port Dickson lost RM108,500 also in a Macau scam.

He said that on Dec 10, the victim received a phone call from a policeman who identified himself as Sgt Lee from the Ipoh police headquarters who told him that the money in his bank account was proceeds from money laundering and asked him to transfer the money into a bank account that he gave for investigation purposes.

"The victim told him that the money was not illegal and it belonged to his late father. On Dec 13, the complainant went to Ambank Port Dickson Branch and made a money transfer through an ATM machine of RM 50,000 in the name of Hadir Bin Andi (no. 2006811000206250) Agro Bank," he said in a statement here, today.

He said the suspect also instructed the victim to transfer money into the same account the next day twice, RM50,000 and RM3,500 respectively and that the last transaction of RM5,000 was on Dec 15.

Aibee said after the victim made the money transfer, the suspect had sent a copy of a letter from the National Audit Department via Whatsapp stating that the letter was about assets that needed to be investigated to ensure the complainant's money was illegal or not.

He added that the suspect gave a time frame for the sum to be returned to the complainant when the investigation was completed but until now the victim has not received any developments regarding the money.