MIRI: Four women here lost a total of RM37,460 after separately falling victim to fraudsters via Macau Scam and parcel scam.
Sarawak Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah said the first incident involved a waitress, 42, who lost RM22,200 between Sept 15 and Oct 8 to a man who claimed to be a police officer from Johor.
“She was told that a bank loan had been taken out in her name, and that she needed to transfer funds to an account number given to her to avoid falling foul of the law,” he said yesterday.
After transferring RM22,200 in two transactions, the woman received another call from someone claiming to be from the court, and told to transfer RM3 million into the same account.
“It was then that she realised she had been scammed and proceeded to lodge a police report,” said Mustafa Kamal.
The second report was received by police on Nov 5 involving a 24-year-old government department clerk in Miri, who lost RM4,500 to a parcel scam, while the subsequent two cases both took place on Nov 7.
The state CCID chief said the latter two cases both involved Macau Scam, and saw a civil servant and a human resource executive lose RM7,000 and RM3,760 respectively.
“The civil servant was accused of being involved in drug trafficking and counterfeiting currency by a caller who claimed to be a police officer.
“She was told she could ‘settle’ the case by transferring RM2,000 to an account provided to her. After doing so, she was asked to transfer another RM5,000, which she did again. A third demand for RM2,000 finally raised her suspicion and she decided to lodge a police report.”
As for the 27-year-old human resource executive, Mustafa Kamal was told she had an outstanding credit card balance of nearly RM29,000 by someone claiming to be from a court in Melaka, despite her not owning such a card.
“She was told that an arrest warrant had been issued for her and that her bank account would be frozen, and that she needed to transfer RM3,760 to an account as a ‘security deposit’ to prove she was not involved in such a case.”
Mustafa Kamal went on to remind the public not to panic when faced with calls from unknown persons claiming to be from the police, courts, banks, or government agencies.
“Don’t entertain such callers. Just hang up and head to the nearest police station to clarify whether whatever case the caller claimed you are involved in is genuine or not,” he said.