Moneylender claiming to be operating from Wisma MCA is fake, says Michael Chong

KUALA LUMPUR: A loan scheme purporting to use Wisma MCA as its address is a fake, says Datuk Seri Michael Chong.

The MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head slammed the scammers at a press conference here on Thursday (Oct 7) for using the building in their ruse.

The scammers claimed that they had an office on the sixth floor, but Chong pointed out that the addresses given out to victims had errors.

“Today two victims have come forward but there are many more who have contacted me," he said.

"There is no such moneylender in the building, the sixth floor is reserved for MCA use," he added.

Chong noted that the department started getting calls from victims in August.

“They (the scammers) knew what they were doing. It was around the time offices were being opened after the lockdowns,” he said.

Chong added that Wisma MCA management lodged a police report on the matter on Sept 29.

Also present at Thursday's press conference were two victims of the loan scheme, identified only as Mr Lim and Mrs Harimala, who said they got in contact with the "moneylenders" after seeing advertisements on social media.

Lim said he lost around RM3,400 while Harimala lost RM39,694 after being convinced by the scammers to make transactions into various bank accounts.

“A man introduced himself as Reno Lee and told me that I first needed to prove that I could pay back the applied loan of RM40,000. I was told to make two interest payments first as proof," said Harimala.

“Then I was told I needed to pay extra for insurance, sales charges and so on. I had to ask for money from my family to pay up,” she added.