Too good to be true: Chan (left) showing the mobile app on his phone that was used to track his investments during a press conference held by Yuen (right).
IPOH: Believing that his “investments” in shares had earned him RM1.7mil, a factory owner ended up RM210,000 poorer instead.
Just wanting to be known as Chan, the 47-year-old said he came across a social media advertisement about investing in shares and clicked on the post.
He said the link led him to a WhatsApp chat channel where he started communicating with a woman who claimed to be named Linda.
“She offered me several company share schemes and I started one with RM10,000,” Chan said at a press conference held by Perak MCA public services and complaints bureau chief Charles Yuen here yesterday.
Chan said he did an online search of the firms and found that they were listed as private limited companies.
“As I was required to pay more to access the company profile, I decided to just invest in it,” he added.
Chan made about RM50,000 at the initial stage and decided to invest more.
He said he was asked to download a mobile app called CDT Citi to keep track of his investments.
“The app provided simple explanations on how to invest, which made it even more convincing,” he said.
In May, Chan was notified that his investments had returned a profit of RM1.7mil and that he could withdraw the money.
“To do so, I was required to pay commissions and some taxes. After paying about RM29,000, I was still unable to withdraw the money,” he said, adding that he lodged a police report on July 13.
Chan finally realised he had been conned when he was instructed to pay more.
“I urge people to be careful and not trust any investment scheme on social media.
If there are victims like me, I hope they will go to the police,” he added.
Yuen said the police should investigate the companies first, which could provide more leads.
“I think it will be difficult to track down this so-called Linda. The police should check the companies to see if they are genuine or proxies used by scammers.”
