MACAU SCAMS
SIBU: A teacher and a clerk lost a total of RM209, 907 in two separate Macau scams recently.
Sibu district police chief ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit said both victims had transferred their hard earned money to the scammers as fear tactic was used against them.
In the first case on Dec 15, a 45-year old female teacher of a secondary school here received a call from a man who claimed he was from the post office.
“The man told her that there was a parcel with her identity card and several credit cards in it,” he said.
The call was subsequently transferred to a woman by the name of Camelia who told her that the matter was a serious one. She then transferred the line to a police officer, a Sgt Teo.
“Sgt Teo accused her of drug trafficking and money laundering after he had reviewed her identity card and the credit cards inside the parcel. He advised her to transfer all her money to an account of an auditor so as to clear her name,” he said.
The victim did as told and made 10 transfers to an account totalling RM143, 900.
In the second case, Stanley said the 44-year old victim had on Dec 11 received a call from a man from Pos Laju Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.
“The victim was told that a parcel with her identity card and also credit card had been sent from Kota Kinabalu to Kuantan. A ‘police officer from Sabah’ took over the line and informed her that a special team was now in Sibu to arrest her for money laundering and drug trafficking. She was also advised not to reveal anything to anyone,” he added.
Stanley said the victim was also advised to buy a new handphone as it was not safe to talk using landline.
“She subsequently bought a new handphone. The suspect again threatened that she would be arrested and imprisoned for three years in a prison in Sabah,” he said adding that the victim felt scared and was also worried over the safety of her family.
She opened a new bank account and registered her phone number as told by the suspect if she wanted no action be taken against her.
After that she transferred all her savings totaling RM66, 070 to the new account.
Stanley said the two cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
