DENTIST, ENGINEER FALL VICTIM TO PHONE, INVESTMENT SCAMS

JERTIH, Dec 9 (Bernama) -- Panic ensued when a dentist was told that her phone number was being used for fraudulent purposes, causing the terrified woman to lose RM269,000 over several months in a phone scam.

Acting Besut police chief DSP Md Sani Md Saleh said the 26-year-old victim claimed to have received a phone call on Oct 12 from a caller with the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC).

"The suspect (caller) claimed that the victim's phone number had been used for fraudulent purposes in Kuantan before the call was connected to another suspect posing as a police officer, who said her bank account was used as a mule account in illegal money laundering.

"The victim denied this, but the scammer asked her to file a police report online and ordered her to deposit money as a guarantee to settle the case," Md Sani said in a statement today.

He said the frightened victim then deposited money through 15 transactions into nine different accounts before she finally lodged a police report on Dec 5 upon realising she had been cheated.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, an oil engineer working in Saudi Arabia was cheated of RM562,424 by a scammer posing as a representative of an investment company allegedly operating in Hong Kong.

"The suspect lured the victim by posting advertisements on Facebook before contacting him and adding him to a WhatsApp group. The victim was enticed with promises of lucrative returns and profits of up to 410 per cent, leading him to invest from April to October this year.

"The victim realised he had been scammed when he did not receive the promised returns within the stipulated time frame," Md Sani said, adding that the victim filed a police report on Nov 28.

-- BERNAMA