BINTULU: A private company supervisor lost RM209,800 after falling victim to a Macau scam recently.
The incident happened on Nov 15 when the 59-year-old man received a phone call from an individual claiming to be from the Ministry of Health in Putrajaya.
The caller told the victim that he had made 1,200 defamatory complaints about the ministry on social media and the case was being investigated by the Kota Kinabalu police headquarters (IPD) in Sabah.
Bintulu OCPD Supt Batholomew Umpit said the call was then connected to another person purportedly from Kota Kinabalu IPD to solve the case.
“The victim was instructed to file for an appeal as his name was involved in money laundering, drug trafficking and working with a gang called ‘Lim Kok Wing’, who is a retired bank manager in Bintulu and being detained at Kota Kinabalu IPD.
“If not resolved as soon as possible, the victim will be subject to court action,” he said.
He added that the victim was instructed to open an Islamic Bank account and deposit a sum of money into the account.
The victim followed the instructions and deposited a sum of money into the new account as well as registering the suspect’s email and phone number for online banking purposes.
Supt Batholomew stated that the victim only realised that he had been cheated after finding out the balance in his account was only RM388.
He also found that a sum of RM209,800 had been transferred into two accounts via nine transactions between Nov 16 and 17.
The victim lodged a police report on yesterday (Nov 22) for further action.
