IPOH: A factory owner here lost about RM210,000 after falling victim to an online share investment scam.
Only wanting to be known as Chan, the 47-year-old said he had initially wanted to try investing in shares and saw an advertisement on Facebook, clicking on the link on March 26.
"The link led me to a WhatsApp chat channel where I was contacted by someone called Linda.
"She offered me several company share schemes and I started one with RM10,000," he said in a press conference held by Perak MCA public services and complaints bureau chief Charles Yuen here on Wednesday (July 23).
"I would get some returns, and started to trust the schemes and invested in more.
"I was also asked to download a mobile app called CDT Citi, which allows me to keep track of my investments," he added.
Chan said he had googled the names of the companies he wanted to invest in and thought they were real entities.
"I did find the names and they seemed to be private limited companies.
"As I was required to pay more to access the company profile, I didn't continue and decided to just invest in it," he said.
Chan said in May, he was informed that his investment had returned about RM1.7mil in profits and could withdraw the money.
"To do so, I would be required to pay commissions and some taxes.
"After paying about RM29,000, I was still unable to withdraw the money," he said, adding that a report was lodged at the Sungai Senam police station here on July 13.
"I was told to pay more and it was then I realised I had been cheated," he added.
Chan said he hopes that the police would act promptly and investigate the matter.
"I urge the people to be careful and not to trust any investment schemes on social media platforms.
"If there are similar incidents, I hope the victims will go to the police so they can have more data to investigate and take actions," he said.
Yuen said he hopes the police would investigate the companies first, which could provide more lead to the case.
"I think it will be difficult to track down this ‘Linda’ person.
"The police could check the companies, to see if they are real entities or proxies used by scammers.
"At least the police could shed some light to the complainant whether such companies are real or not.
"I will continue to follow up on the matter with the police," he added.
