KUCHING: A 65-year-old from Padawan was the latest to be cheated of RM304,956 between September 27 to October 15 over a Macau scam.
The victim received a call from a woman one Siti Rohana bte Abdullah from Kuala Terengganu court and said he borrowed RM50,000 from Hong Leong Bank there. He claimed that if the victim did not pay the debt, he would be blacklisted.
Head of Sarawak Commercial Crime, Supt Mustafa Kamal said the victim told the caller that he could not go to Trengganu to pay and the suspect connected him to a person who claimed to be Sgt Halim bin Hashim from Kuala Terengganu Police Headquarters. The victim was told that he was being investigated for money laundering as his account was used for criminal purposes. He was told he could settle the issue if he, the victim, kept quiet about it. He was also warned that his movement was being monitored.
The next day, the victim was told to get a new cell phone and on October 1, he was directed to Affin Bank to open a new account and asked to transfer all his ASB funds to the new Affin bank account. On October 15, the victim went to check the bank account in Mile 7 and found he only had RM77.57 left.
In Mukah, a teacher aged 51, was cheated of RM3,800 after she received a call on Monday from an unidentified number who identified himself as Mohd Ibrahim Mustapha telling her that a package from UK would be sent to the victim by using express courier. She was asked to pay RM3,800 to the agent for the transaction which she did.
In Mukah too, a victim, aged 19, lost RM650 after receiving a SMS from an unknown person via FB. She was told to pay RM10,000 as there was a package sent to her but was retained by the Customs Department. The victim made a transaction of RM250 on October 10 and another RM400 on October 13. She was asked to pay RM5,000 and if she did not she would be brought to court. She was later told that it was a scam. And a report was lodged.
Seven others also made reports of scams but they were not cheated.
