KUALA LUMPUR: A local woman claims to have been cheated of over RM1.4mil after meeting a someone online who claimed to be South African engineer working in New Zealand.
Petaling Jaya district police chief ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid said the 54-year-old victim met the suspect on Facebook in April and continued their "friendship" through the WhatsApp app.
He said the two had never met and since April, the suspect had asked the self-employed victim for money to buy raw materials for an unknown project.
"As she trusted him, the victim made 37 transactions to four different accounts totalling RM1,445,900.
"Not long after, the victim received a call from a delivery company (Global International Diplomatic Services) claiming there was a 'delivery' believed to be from the suspect for her," he said in a statement on Tuesday (Oct 17).
Mohamad Fakhrudin said on Sept 8, two suspects met the victim and brought a bag allegedly containing US$4.2mil (about RM19.8mil) for the victim.
However, the victim was told that she needed to have an Origin Certificate and Ownership Certificate to receive it, otherwise, she would have to pay RM170,000.
"Since she had run out of money, the victim refused to make the payment and soon after realised that she had been duped and lodged a police report earlier this month," he said.
He said following that, the police arrested three African suspects at a restaurant here last Friday.
An investigation revealed that all suspects are United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card holders and had been in Malaysia since 2019.
He said the suspects, aged from 35 to 48, were remanded for four days. – Bernama
