SIBU: A supervisor from a private company believed he had reaped a profit of USD4mil from online cryptocurrency investment, only to realise he had been cheated of RM331,050.
Sibu OCPD Asst Comm Zulkipli Suhaili said that the 60-year-old man was enticed by a crypto investment scheme advertised on Facebook on November 15 last year.
"He contacted a number on the Facebook advertisement, and an individual claiming to be a tutor named Gabriel Lee said he would add him to the '188-Financial Century' WhatsApp group," ACP Zulkipli said on Sunday (June 23).
Three days after the initial contact, the man opened an investment account on the 'Kakaue' app.
"The victim was guided to make staged payments for cryptocurrency investments to achieve these profits," ACP Zulkipli said.
He added that the victim then conducted 11 transactions from March 19 to May 24 last year, and said that a total of RM331,050 was transferred to the accounts of eight different companies and individuals upon the suspect's instructions.
ACP Zulkipli then said that after completing the transactions, the victim found on the 'Kakaue' app that his profits had supposedly reached USD3,610,730.
However, when he attempted to claim his earnings on June 20, the suspect insisted he needed to make a deposit first.
As of June 21, when a police report was filed, the victim had neither received any profits nor been able to withdraw his original investment.
"This case is now under investigation for cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code," said ACP Zulkipli.
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