KUALA LUMPUR: A former finance officer at a private company was left devastated after losing RM450,000 in savings to a fraudulent investment scheme advertised on social media.
The man, who only wished to be known as Ken Wong, 40, said he was drawn to the investment advertisement that promised high returns and offered guidance for profitable investments.
He said that although he had been involved in the investment world for nearly a decade, he admitted that his judgment was clouded by greed, prompting him to click on the provided link and enter the chatroom.
"Later, I was asked to invest through an online platform, and I successfully withdrew a dividend of about RM5,000 to convince me. The platform displayed that my investments were profitable, but I could not withdraw those profits.
"Instead, the platform urged me to invest RM1.5mil in an initial public offering (IPO) of a foreign company, and that’s when I realised I had been scammed,” he told a press conference in Puchong on Sunday (Nov 3).
He said he had made 23 money transfer transactions into four bank accounts belonging to various private limited companies since July before filing a police report in August after realising he had been scammed.
Meanwhile, the founder of the Pertubuhan Kebajikan Integriti Persahabatan Nasional (PKIPN), Joseph Prakash, urged the authorities to take firm action to address the rampant issue of fraud, including imposing restrictions on investment advertisements on social media that were often used to lure victims.
"Some of these scam victims are already retired; they have filed reports with the police and relevant agencies, providing evidence," he said, adding that his organisation had received over 10 complaints from victims caught up in the same investment scheme, involving losses exceeding RM3mil. - Bernama
