SIBU (Jan 22): An accountant of a company here lost RM25,000 after receiving a call from a scammer disguised as her ‘friend’.
Sibu Police Chief, ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit said the 50-year-old victim received a call from a man who introduced himself as ‘Kevin’ on Jan 20.
“The caller, whom the victim thought was her friend, was asking for financial assistance for business matters with the reason that he had lost his wallet and handphone,” he said in a statement today.
Without checking the authenticity of the caller, the victim transferred a total of RM25,000 to three different accounts via online transaction.
“However, the victim became suspicious after the transaction was successful.
“She contacted the real Kevin and only to realised that she had been cheated when her real friend told her that he had never contacted her to borrow some money,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, a 28-year-old woman lost RM2,010 after dealing with a ‘car dealer’.
The victim who is unemployed was interested in a car sales advertised through Facebook.
She contacted the ‘car dealer’ through the messenger.
Soon, she received a message via Whatsapp from an unknown individual asking the kind of car she was interested in.
But before that, she was required to provide copies of her picture and some personal documents for processing purposes.
“The victim made three transactions totalling RM2,010 to the ‘car dealer’ account from Jan 11 to Jan 13,” said Stanley.
Until today, the victim failed to contact the suspect, thus decided to lodge a police report.
“Both cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating,” Stanley added.