Veggie farmer loses nearly RM800,000 to scammers

KUANTAN: The fear that he would be arrested led a vegetable farmer in Cameron Highlands to lose almost RM800,000 to a scammer.

State police chief Comm Datuk Seri Yahaya Othman said the 54-year-old victim claimed the scam started when he received a phone call on June 19 from a man who introduced himself as an employee of a courier company.

“The call was transferred to a second person who disguised himself as a police officer because the items addressed to the victim contained credit cards, identification cards and passports.

“The ‘police officer’ told the victim that an arrest warrant had been issued in relation to an investigation into money laundering which would cause his bank account to be frozen,” Comm Yahaya said in a statement, Bernama reported.

The victim was instructed to transfer a total of RM792,669.45 from his savings account to five different accounts given by the second suspect for the purpose of investigation.

The victim became suspicious after he failed to contact the suspect to ask about the progress of the investigation.

The farmer finally lodged a police report on Tuesday.

Comm Yahaya urged the people who receive suspicious calls to immediately check with the police to avoid becoming victims of fraud.

The public can also check the account numbers given and phone numbers of the callers at https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my before making financial transactions.