Two varsity students lose RM27,545 in part-time job offer scam

KEPALA BATAS: Two university students lost RM27,545 after they were cheated by a syndicate offering part-time jobs on a well-known e-commerce platform, in separate incidents here.

Seberang Perai Utara district police chief ACP Noorzainy Mohd Noor said the first victim, a 21-year-old man found himself poorer by RM21,450 while another victim, a woman, aged 23 ended up losing RM6,095 of her savings.

"Preliminary investigations found that the victims saw a part-time job advertisement with high-paying salary on a Facebook page about two months ago before clicking on the link given.

"The victims were then added to a WhatsApp group and were told that they have been offered to work as online purchasing agents," he said in a statement today.

Noorzainy said the victims were tasked to purchase items fixed by the WhatsApp group administrator and the payment should be made directly to the bank account given by the syndicate.

He said the victims were also promised that they would get 10 per cent commission for each payment made which would only be given to them once they completed their task.

"In the early stages, the victims received the profit as promised, prompting them to make more payments in stages," he said.

The two students, however, realised that they had been cheated after the promised profit was not received and lodged a police report on the matter yesterday Noorzainy said adding that the cases were being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

Meanwhile, he said five cases of part-time job offer scam on e-commerce platforms involving university students with a total loss of RM59,328 were recorded in the Seberang Perai Utara district from July to yesterday.

-- BERNAMA