Retiree and hubby lose life savings in Macau scam

BATU PAHAT: A retiree’s mistake of not immediately lodging a police report cost her all her retirement fund.

Posing as police, a syndicate duped the woman into emptying all her bank accounts by frightening her into believing she was on the police’s wanted list for money laundering totalling RM3mil.

According to sources, the woman’s nightmare started when she received a call several weeks ago and was told that she had not paid up her instalments for her bank loan of RM50,000. The woman, in her 50s, apparently denied taking any bank loan.

The sources said the caller then informed her to immediately “lodge” a police report at the nearest police station, but the victim claimed that she was not free at that time as she was doing some errands.

“Within minutes the woman received a call from a ‘police inspector’ alleging that she was involved in money laundering totalling RM3mil, ” added the sources.

“The woman panicked when the policeman also informed her that there were several arrest warrants out for her and her husband.”It is learnt that the “policemen” also sent a copy of the arrest warrant to the woman’s mobile phone to convince her she was in serious trouble.

The woman and her husband were then directed to move all their money to one account because the police were planning to freeze their other bank accounts.

“The suspects then gave the woman another mobile phone number to register for the TAC codes for the account and asked for her Internet banking details, ” the sources also said.The woman then related the matter to her family and a family member raised the alarm about this being a Macau scam.

The next day, the woman and her husband rushed to the bank to check on their money and discovered all their life savings of RM300,000 had been transferred out of the account. She then lodged a police report.

A Macau scam often starts with a phone call from someone pretending to be an officer from a bank, government agency or debt collector.

Those with information about such cases should contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999.