Teacher duped by scam despite doing her homework

Zakirah Yaakob (centre) said that the company using the names of famous heads convinced her into believing that the company was legitimate.

KUALA LUMPUR: A teacher did all the homework by attending and picking up tips from anti-scam talks and researching the company she planned to invest with – yet she still fell for an investment scam.

“I was aware, but because they used the names of industry bigwigs, they were so convincing that I sought a loan and dumped in RM50,000,” said Zakirah Yaakob as she broke down in tears.

“I sat through anti-scam talks conducted by the police when they came to my school. I did research on the company, including checking its background with the Companies Commission of Malaysia.”

The 30-year-old said early last year, she was approached to invest in a so-called Islamic Redeemable Shares scheme.

Zakirah said she received a total of RM6,000 worth of dividends from the investment in the first four months, but the payments stopped around May last year.

The company issued a memo to say it would perform a buyback of her shares, but she has not received any news since.

She still wonders if the big names were actually linked to the investment scheme or their names were simply being misused for such unscrupulous activities.

“I do not even know if they know their names were being used. They had never shown up at the online webinars we had with the directors of the company,” she added.

Zakirah is among the hundreds of victims who fell into that investment trap.

Malaysian International Humanitarian Organisation secretary-general Datuk Hishamuddin Hashim said he received complaints from some 330 victims in the last two weeks.

“The losses that were reported to us were around RM100mil,” he added.

Hishamuddin, who organised a press conference outside the Sentul police headquarters here after lodging reports against the company yesterday, said these scammers were enjoying the fruit of other people’s labour.

“Most of the victims put in their retirement funds and some refinanced their houses or borrowed money from family members for their ‘investments’.

“More than 250 police reports have been made against this company.

“We are worried that this case will not be investigated and that we will be told to file a civil suit instead,” he said.