Businessman loses RM688,300 to investment scam

KUALA TERENGGANU: A businessman claimed to have lost RM688,300 to a non-existent investment scam, says Terengganu police chief Comm Datuk Mazli Mazlan.

He said the businessman, in his 50s, became interested after seeing an advertisement on Facebook in October last year.

“The victim was given investment-related information through a link and the website, and the victim could make transactions and view Bursa Malaysia’s graph movement statistics,” he said in a statement yesterday, Bernama reported.

He added that the victim invested a total of RM688,300 through 19 transactions into 12 different accounts, with the promise of a profit of RM2mil when it reached the maturity date on Jan 24.

After the promised period, the businessman wanted to withdraw the profit, but was asked to pay a withdrawal fee of 1% of the total profit.

“After he made the payment as requested, he was blocked from the website,” he said, adding that the businessman lodged a police report on Wednesday.

Comm Mazli advised the public to always stay vigilant of non-existent investments and not to be easily influenced by promises of lucrative profits.

Based on statistics from the Terengganu Commercial Crime Investigation Department, a total of 136 reports were received from Jan 28 to Feb 3, compared with 115 reports in the previous week, an increase of 21 reports.

Comm Mazli said a total of 36 investigation papers had been opened, involving a total loss of RM1,095,762.15.