SIBU: Two women here have lost a total of RM17,000 to Macau scams.
Acting Sibu district police chief Supt Dr Collin Babat said the victims were a 21-year-old college student and a factory worker, 26.
According to Supt Collin, the student received a call at 1.30pm on Wednesday (March 9) from a man who introduced himself as an Inland Revenue Board (IRB) officer.
The “officer” claimed that her identity card had been used to register a company in Indera Mahkota, Kuantan.
After that, she was contacted by a person claiming to be from Pahang police headquarters, claiming that she was involved in money laundering and drug tafficking.
“The frightened victim simply followed the suspect’s instructions, handing over her account details, and was asked to transfer her savings of RM7,830 to the account number provided.
“She was promised that her money would be returned within 45 minutes,” Supt Collin said.
However, when she tried to contact the suspect to find out the status of her money, she could not get through.
In the second case, the factory worker was contacted by a “Telekom Malaysia officer” who claimed that a line had been registered in her name in Seremban.
She was told that the line was involved in a cybercrime.
Supt Collin said she denied the claim but the call was then transferred to a “police office” from Seremban.
“She was told that she had been involved with a fraudster known as ‘Chao Tian Fu’ who purportedly deposited (ill-gotten) money into her account,” he added.
Supt Collin added that the victim then panicked and complied with the suspect’s instructions by providing her bank details as well as her mother’s.
“When she checked, she found that RM6,000 in her account and RM4,000 from her mother’s account had been transferred out,” he said.
The cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
