Photo for illustration purposes only.
SIBU (Sept 23): A 62-year-old woman here lost RM10,000 after being deceived that she had an overdue phone bill and was involved in criminal offences.
Sibu police chief ACP Stanley Jonathan Ringgit said the woman, who is a retiree, received a phone call from a man claiming to be Zulkifli Mohd Adli from the headquarters of a telecommunications company on Wednesday at around 9.30am.
The victim was told that a broadband account registered under her name was overdue by RM1,188.05.
She was also told that her telephone line was also involved in an online gambling operation.
The woman was then connected to a man named ‘Shahrul’, who claimed to be a sergeant working at a police station in Negeri Sembilan.
“The victim was then told that she was involved in a 1MDB money laundering offence with an unknown man named Jimmy Wong.
“She was told that she had a bank card that was used by Jimmy Wong in connection with that money laundering offence,” Stanley said in a statement.
He said the victim was then connected to another man, who claimed to be ‘Insp Redzuan’, who told the victim that if she wanted to solve this problem, she would need to transfer RM10,000 to the National Audit Department for investigation.
She was then told that this needed to be done to ensure that the money in her account was not involved in the money laundering offence.
“The victim panicked. So, at around 12.30pm, she drove to town to go to the bank. Then around 1.39pm, she made three transactions. The first amounting to RM4,950, the second amounting to RM4,950, and the third amounting to RM100 to an account number under the name of Shamsudin Abu Hassan,” he said.
The victim only realised that she had been cheated when she was told by a family member.
She lodged a police report immediately for further action.
Stanley said the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.