Anyone can be targeted, even Perak’s top cop

IPOH: Scammers do not select their victims. Even the Perak top cop was himself a target once.In sharing his experience, Comm Datuk Mior Faridalathrash Wahid (pic) said a scammer called and told him that he owed tax arrears.

“Recently, I received a call supposedly from the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN).

“When I asked since when LHDN is open on a Saturday, the caller said their officers are working on weekends nowadays. The caller even claimed that they are operating on Sunday as well,” he said.

Comm Mior Faridalathrash said the public should not answer unknown calls, and even if they do, they should not prolong the conversation.

“For instance, if you receive a call from the police, we would only ask you to come to a certain police station to assist in an investigation,” he said.

Comm Mior Faridalathrash said in Perak alone, victims suffered some RM30mil in losses to such online scams.

He said despite having campaigns to warn people of such scams, there were still those who became victims.

“We can have a campaign today but tomorrow, someone will still get cheated,” he said.

Comm Mior Faridalathrash said to further create awareness, police have been giving talks at mosques on Fridays since early this year so that those present would relate the message to their family and friends.

Lawyer Abd Rahim Ali has dodged scam attempts twice in the past two months, from one caller alleging to be from an insurance company and another from the LHDN.

“The first was in March when I was in London. The person asked if I had made an insurance claim for an accident in Melaka. I said I’d never been involved in such an incident. He then offered to transfer the call to a police officer in Melaka, to help me lodge a report to void the alleged claim,” said the 36-year-old.

He declined the offer as he suspected it was a scam.

This month, Abd Rahim received another call from a “LHDN officer”.

“This time I was a bit shaken as the person read out my full name and MyKad number. He claimed that I had set up a company that had arrears amounting to RM50,000 that needed to be settled immediately.”

Abd Rahim said the caller had even proposed to meet him at the LHDN office in Johor Baru but when asked for the address, the person was dumbfounded.

Abd Rahim hopes that others will be extra vigilant and avoid becoming Macau scam victims.

“The most important thing is not to panic when getting such calls because if you do, you could easily fall prey to their tricks and lies,” he said.

Sara Soraya Mohamed Shamaun, 28, was not as lucky. She lost RM800 to a scammer when she was a final-year student in a public university in Sarawak.

“I received a call from an unknown number claiming that I had a summons for failing to pay credit card bills that were long overdue. I was nervous, even though I didn’t have a credit card then.”

Sara Soraya, now an intern at a human resource development agency in Selangor, said she ended up paying all that she had in her bank account to “settle the case”.

She only realised she had been duped when calls and text messages to the person went unanswered.

Sara Soraya said she was traumatised by the experience and now gets anxious whenever she sees an unknown number calling her.