JOHOR BARU: Aiming to make millions in profit, a retiree suffered huge financial losses instead, after investing more than RM650,000 of his savings in a bogus investment scheme.
Johor Baru North OCPD Asst Comm Balveer Singh said the 73-year-old victim lodged a police report on Tuesday.
“The victim claims that on June 26, at 10.02am, he received a message on his WhatsApp from an unknown person who gave him a link for an investment scheme that promised returns of up to 90% from the invested capital.
“He was attracted by the promise of profits and made nine transactions to five different bank accounts given to him between July 2 until July 30 amounting to a total of RM655,109,” ACP Balveer said here on Wednesday.
It is learnt that the victim checked the link where he saw he made about RM1.5mil in profit but could not withdraw the money.
ACP Balveer said the victim only realised he had been scammed after failing to withdraw his profit through the link given.
“The suspect told him that the account had been blocked,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.ACP Balveer said investigations would also look into whether any mule accounts were being used in the scam, where action will be taken against the account owners.
He urged the public to be more vigilant and aware of the latest tactics used by scammers to cheat their victims.
He said the public should not easily believe in any investment or online employment offers that promised high income.
“The police commercial crime department has provided many channels to the public such as Semak Mule, CCID scam response centre at 03-2610 1559, the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) at 997 and the department’s Facebook page.
“The public should use such channels to get information pertaining to commercial crime before making online transaction payments to a third party,” he said.
