By Balqis Jazimah Zahari
Photo Illustration
TELUK INTAN: A supervisor of a private company, suffered a loss of RM217,000 after being deceived by a fraud syndicate through a phone scam.
Perak Police Chief, Datuk Sri Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri said, at about 1.23pm, last Friday, the police received a police report from a 38-year-old local woman working as a supervisor in a private company, saying that she was tricked and cheated by a “goods delivery” syndicate using the ‘Phone-scam’ modus operandi.
“As a result of the preliminary investigation, the police found that on June 26 at about 2pm while the victim was at home in Teluk Intan, she received a phone call from a man (the first suspect) who introduced himself as being from a delivery company, and stated that there was a parcel belonging to the victim, whereby she was the sender herself.
“The man also stated that he scanned the image and found that the parcel contained five identity cards, five passports and five ATM cards from various banks.
“The victim denied the matter and the suspect then asked the victim to make a police report online by connecting the phone line to a woman (the second suspect) who introduced herself as Sergeant Jasmine who interrogated the victim,” he said.
“Then the victim was connected to a man (the third suspect) who introduced himself as Inspector Wong who interrogated the victim and made a check on the victim’s name.
”He (the third suspect) stated that the victim had an arrest warrant with her name because the victim had been involved in money laundering and human trafficking.
“Next, the victim was connected by phone to another individual (the fourth suspect) who introduced himself as Datuk Koh, Senior Police Officer.
“The victim was also interrogated by Datuk Koh and instructed to deposit all her savings into six local financial institutions given by Datuk Koh for the purpose of the investigation to clear the name of the victim,” he said.
Datuk Yusri then said the victim was promised by “Datuk Koh” that he would return the victim’s money after completing the investigation.
“The victim then transferred her entire savings and loans to six local financial institutions with a total amounting to RM217,000, from June 27 to June 30.
“In addition, the victim was also asked to report herself through the WhatsApp application every time she makes a money transfer to Datuk Koh,” he said.
Datuk Yusri said that at about 10 pm on Thursday, the victim told this matter to a friend because she was afraid and worried.
“The victim’s friend later advised the victim to make a police report as her friend suspected that this was not true and that she was tricked by criminals,” he added.
