Bintulu supervisor loses over RM200,000 to Macau Scam

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Supt Batholomew Umpit

BINTULU (Nov 23): A 59-year-old supervisor of a private company here has lost his hard-earned savings of RM209,800 to a Macau Scam.

Bintulu police chief Supt Batholomew Umpit, in a statement, said the victim received a call from a suspect, who impersonated as personnel from Ministry of Health (MoH) in Putrajaya on Nov 15.

“The suspect accused the victim of making 1,200 baseless allegations against MoH on social media and that the case is under police investigation,” he added.

He said the victim’s conversation was then connected to another suspect who impersonated as a policeman from the Kota Kinabalu district police headquarters (IPD Kota Kinabalu) in Sabah.

“In order to solve the case, the victim was asked to appeal to the police officer because his name was also linked to another illegal money laundering, drug smuggling including collaborating with ‘Geng Lim Kok Wing’, a retired bank manager in Bintulu who was caught and detained at IPD Kota Kinabalu, he added.

“The victim was also threatened with court action if he failed to solve the case immediately,” he added.

Batholomew said the victim was then instructed to open a bank account and was told to deposit some money into the account.

“The victim withdrew his savings in ASB (Amanah Saham Bumiputera) and put it into the new account and also followed other instructions from the suspect to register an email account and the suspect’s mobile number for online banking transactions,” he added.

Batholomew said the victim only realised that he was scammed after RM209,800 from his account was transferred into two unknown individuals’ accounts via nine transactions between Nov 16 and Nov 17, leaving his bank account with only RM388.

Batholomew said the victim subsequently lodged a police report yesterday.

Meanwhile, Batholomew reminded the public to remain calm and not panic when receiving such calls from unknown individuals who claim to be from government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies and courier companies.

“For safety, they must end the conversation immediately and check with the relevant authorities for verification. Please don’t ever call the numbers that were provided by the individuals, ” he said.

He also advised the public to not disclose their personal and banking details to anyone.

The public can check the suspect’s telephone numbers and bank accounts via CHECK SCAMMERS CCID or through http://semakmule.rmp.gov.my before proceeding with any online banking transaction.

They also can call CCID Scam Response Centre on 03-26101559 or Commercial Crime Investigation Department info line 013-2111222 (WhatsApp/SMS).

The scam victims can also call the National Scam Response Centre on 997 for further assistance.