By Balqis Jazimah Zahari
Photo Illustration
TAIPING: A single mother who is also a government pensioner suffered a total loss of RM113,850 after being deceived by a ‘phone scam’.
Perak Police Chief, Datuk Seri Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri said, at about 3.41pm yesterday, his side received a police report from a 67-year-old woman saying that she was deceived and defrauded by a goods delivery syndicate using the ‘Phone-scam’ modus operandi.
“As a result of the initial investigation, the police found that in early June, the victim received a phone call from a suspected local man (suspect) who introduced himself to be from a delivery company and stated that there was a package containing the victim’s identity card sent to an address in Perlis but the house was empty.
“Then the package was said to be handed over to the Perlis Police Station. The victim spoke to a person posing as a police officer (the 2nd suspect) who claimed that the victim was involved in money laundering and drug cases,” he said.
Mohd Yusri said that immediately after that, the victim was connected to a man who called himself a ‘Dato’ (the 3rd suspect).
“The suspect asked the victim to cooperate if she did not want to be arrested. The victim was instructed to disclose all her bank account information for investigation purposes and to avoid the account being frozen.
“Due to fear, the victim gave all her bank account information, then, the suspect ordered the victim to open an account at Bank Islam and put all her savings into the account.
“Next, the victim followed the suspect’s instructions and transferred money from her savings account amounting to RM101,887.50 to the Islamic Bank account,” he said.
He said the victim was also instructed to provide Bank Islam account information in the Bank Negara Malaysia application downloaded to her mobile phone.
“In addition, the victim withdrew money from her savings account amounting to RM10,900 and deposited the money into a CIMB Bank account given by the suspect.
He said, on July 13 the victim went to the Bank Islam Taiping branch, to check the account.
“As a result of the review, the victim found that her money in the account had been withdrawn through eight money transfer transactions amounting to RM102,950 into three accounts that the victim did not know about on June 12, 2023. The total amount of loss suffered by the victim amounted to RM113,850.
“After that, the victim suspected of being cheated after the suspect failed to be contacted and made a police report,” he said
He said the case was investigated under section 420 of the penal code (cheating) and the investigation was still ongoing.
