KUALA LUMPUR: In their golden years, a septuagenarian couple found out the hard way that all that glitters may not be gold, after all.
A glib-talking stranger conned Rani Rahim and wife, Halijah Othman into believing their groceries receipt from a hypermarket in Ampany last Tuesday, entitled them to take home, either a new Perodua MyVi or a gold bar.
Believing the man who identified himself as the hypermarket’s senior officer ‘Kenny’, with its logo tag and all, Rani, 76, and Halijah, 74, were delighted and accompanied him to a jewellery shop in Cheras.
“There, the stranger sweet-talked me and my wife into purchasing a gold bar worth RM18,000, using my credit cards and promised to reimburse the amount, upon our return to the hypermarket.
“Following the transaction, ‘Kenny’ volunteered to hold on to the gold bar as he feared for our safety.
“He then excused himself to go to the restroom and that was the last we heard from him. It was our worst nightmare to have lost RM18,000 in a single day,” Rani told Bernama.
The couple lodged a report at the Cheras police headquarters.
Cheras police chief, ACP Chong Kok Sin said this was the first time that he was handling such a scam.
“We are trying to identify the suspect via the closed-circuit television cameras,” he said. — Bernama