JOHOR BARU: A 24-year-old Malaysian woman working as a nurse in Singapore lost over RM40,000 after falling victim to an online love scam.
Johor Baru South OCPD Asst Comm Raub Selamat said the woman had met a man, believed to be a Chinese national, on the social media platform RedNote on Feb 22.
"The suspect, who went by the name Zhou Sheng, is believed to have used a fake identity.
"After about a week of getting to know each other, the suspect and the victim agreed to meet in Johor Baru on Saturday (March 1).
"However, the suspect claimed he needed financial assurance to leave his workplace and convinced the victim to transfer money to him," he said in a statement on Monday (March 3).
The victim proceeded to make 11 online transactions to three different accounts – RM4,889.25 to a digital payment platform and RM5,200 and S$10,700 (RM35,310) to two bank accounts, he added.
"Although she made the payments, the suspect continued to demand more money. It was then that the victim realised she had been scammed and lodged a police report.
"Checks on the accounts through Semak Mule found that none of them had previous links to fraud causes," ACP Raub said.
In a separate case, he said police are investigating an online part-time job scam that caused a local woman to lose RM53,857.
He added that the 21-year-old woman, who works as a recruitment consultant, lodged a police report at the Pelangi Indah police station on Sunday (March 2).
"The matter started on Feb 8 when the victim came across an online advertisement on Instagram for a part-time job.
"She was then contacted via WhatsApp by a person using the number 011-2191 2311, who introduced her to a part-time job on the website Mango.
"The victim was asked to provide her personal details to start the job, which involved promoting the website's product listings," he said.
ACP Raub added that the victim was required to make upfront payments for tasks and was promised commissions along with reimbursement.
Between Feb 8 and 16, she made nine transactions to eight different local bank accounts, transferring a total of RM53,857.
"Despite making the payments, she was repeatedly asked to deposit more money. Realising she had been scammed, she refused and reported the matter to the police.
"Checks on Semak Mule found that the eight bank accounts had at least 20 prior fraud connections in total. The victim also never received any commissions as promised," he said.
ACP Raub said investigations in both cases have been opened under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
He urged the public to be cautious when dealing with individuals on social media and to verify phone numbers and bank accounts using the Semak Mule online verification tool provided by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department.
"Those who suspect they are being scammed should immediately report the matter to the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) by calling 997 to prevent further financial losses,” he added.
He also encouraged the public to follow CCID's social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for updates on scam tactics used by fraudsters.
