PETALING JAYA: "If you want us to release your son, put RM200,000 in a bag and drop it at Damansara Uptown."
That call from a "police officer" was enough to send a desperate mother hurrying to a bank.
The 60-year-old woman thought the money could secure the release of her son.
But she was stunned to find out later that her son was never arrested.
The incident has put the police at their wits end after numerous warnings of a syndicate posing as policemen preying on senior citizens. There have been 10 such con jobs this year.
"I want to tell people, there is no such thing. No way will police ask for money to release a person," said Petaling Jaya police chief Asst Comm Azmi Abu Kassim.
"This lady, she had her mind set that police wanted money so that they will let her son go.
"I have this guilty feeling. What have we done that makes people think that they have to bribe us? We would never do this," he said.
He said the retiree received a call at home on Monday morning, from a man claiming to be an officer from his district.
The man said her son had been detained for drugs and was being held in a police station. The man wanted RM200,000.
All the while, her son was working in his office - oblivious to what was going on at home.
ACP Azmi said police traced the telephone number and obtained closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage at the coffee shop where the woman had dropped off the money.
He said he found it curious that all recent victims in his district were from Sea Park.
None of them were related to each other or have accounts in the same banks that would suggest a pattern for the syndicate.
"We are looking into insiders because they seem to know how much these victims have in their accounts and where their loved ones would be when they call," he said.
He warned people not to be gullible and always contact the police to verify claims made by "officers" when they receive suspicious calls.
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