KUCHING: Two women and a student have fallen prey to a Macau scam syndicate involving a total loss of RM77,200.
State Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah in a statement issued yesterday said that the three cases occurred in Kuching, Sibu and Padawan.
“The first case involved a 20-year-old student in Kuching who was fooled by the suspect through a phone conversation, where the perpetrator who posed as a magistrate allegedly claimed that the victim was served with a final notice of arrears for a bank credit card amounting to RM16,840.88.
“She was later referred to a person claiming to be a police officer (an Inspector) who said that the victim was involved in money laundering and he could obtain a report for the victim.
“The call was again transferred to a woman impersonating as a police officer requesting for the victim’s personal banking account details (Maybank2u and ClMB Clicks) who claimed that she was checking data in their money laundering system,” he said.
Mustafa added that the victim even went to the extent of providing her TAC code to the suspect before realising that she was being deceived after she discovered that a total amount of RM17,760 from her account was transferred to two third-party accounts.
“In the second case a 25-year-old hospital staff in Sibu was deceived by a suspect who claimed to be a magistrate from Melaka Magistrate’s court who claimed that the victim had a credit card outstanding balance of RM16,800.88 from a bank.
“Her phone call was then connected to the Malacca police headquarters and spoke to a suspect who claimed he would assist the victim in resolving the matter before taking the victim’s personal details.
“The victim was again redirected to an officer who said that the victim was involved in money laundering and her name had been blacklisted and requested for details of her bank account, password as well as the TAC online banking number,” he said.
Mustafa said the victim only realised that she had been cheated after receiving a text message from CIMB Click informing her that RM39,440 was transferred from her account to a third-party account.
“The third case involved a 61-year-old housewife in Padawan who was cheated by a Chinese woman who called from a police station in Melaka and claimed that the victim had a court case on corruption,” Mustapha said.
According to him, the suspect asked for the victim’s identification card, bank account number and PIN of the victim’s debit card claiming to assist in resolving the victim’s problem. The victim only realised that she has been cheated after she discovered that RM20,000 had gone missing from her bank account.
