KLUANG: A hardware company director lost more than RM800,000 after falling victim to an online investment scam.
Kluang OCPD Asst Comm Bahrin Mohd Noh said the 56-year-old man came across an advertisement which purportedly promised lucrative returns on social media in March.
“The victim was instructed to download an investment application in order to participate in the investment.
“He then made payments totalling RM829,705 in stages to five different bank accounts between June 5 and July 9,” ACP Bahrin said in a statement.
He said the victim later noticed that the investment application showed a profit of more than RM4.6mil.
“The victim was subsequently instructed to make additional payments in order to withdraw the profit.
“He realised he had been scammed and lodged a police report on Thursday,” ACP Bahrin said.
ACP Bahrin added that the latest information on scam syndicates and their modus operandi can be found on the official Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department.
“Anyone with enquiries can go to the nearest police station or contact the Kluang police headquarters at 07-778 4222,” he said.
In an unrelated case, a housewife in Taiping, Perak, was devastated after losing RM144,558 to a so-called “task scam” in early March.
Taiping police chief ACP Mohamad Nasir Ismail said the 46-year-old victim lodged a police report on July 9 after realising she had been duped by the syndicate.
“Initial investigations revealed that the victim was contacted via the Telegram app by several individuals who offered her online jobs.
“She was tasked with following several accounts on e-commerce platforms to boost their profile visibility, and was promised payments of RM5 to RM8 per task, depending on the views and ratings,” he said in a statement.
ACP Mohamad Nasir said that although the victim received payment notifications after completing each task, the funds could not be accessed or withdrawn.
“The victim was later told she had allegedly committed an error on a task and was required to make payments to recover her Shopee and Lazada accounts,” he said.
He said the victim subsequently made 22 transactions to 12 different accounts as instructed by the suspect, but her accounts were never returned.
“After the last transaction, the victim was again asked to make another deposit, but nothing materialised and the truth finally dawned on the victim that she had been scammed,” he said.
