JOHOR BARU: Lonely women longing for love continue to fall prey to syndicates that have cheated them of their savings amounting to millions of ringgit, said Comm Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat.
The Johor police chief said the majority of these love scam victims were women, both single and married.
“The story is usually similar. The victims in their 40s to 60s fall for individuals pretending to be successful foreign men.
“The suspects are usually locals impersonating men from countries such as Germany, Hong Kong and Japan. They approach their victims through social media.
“They usually propose or get cozy with victims online to gain their trust, while some tell the victims they want to send them something but the alleged gifts, which they claim are large sums of money, would somehow get held up by the Customs Department.
“After that, the suspects impersonate enforcement officers and call victims to ask for tax payments in order to release the gifts,” he told reporters after a promotion ceremony for 118 rank and file personnel at the Johor police headquarters here yesterday.
He said the most recent case involved a woman who was cheated of about RM140,000.
The victim only realised she had been scammed after her child noticed the money missing from her bank account, he said.
Comm Kamarul Zaman said love scams made up a good chunk of the 1,047 cheating cases in Johor which amounted to RM25mil in losses, recorded from Jan 1 to June 7.
This was an increase from the 934 police reports, involving about RM14.5mil, recorded during the same period last year.
“Police are also clamping down on individuals who allow their bank accounts to be used as ‘mule accounts’ by these syndicates.
“Reminders and advice have been given to the public repeatedly about love scams and other cheating cases yet they are still happening.
“Please be more alert especially when an alleged foreign stranger asks for money and the bank account provided is under a local person’s name. That is illogical,” he added.
