JOHOR BARU: For almost four months, scammers patiently coaxed a female accountant into believing their fake investment scheme.
As a result, the woman, who is in her 50s, deposited all her life savings of RM400,000.
The suspects promised the woman almost 600% in returns and duped her into believing that she was a millionaire through her purported investment portfolios.
However, the woman, who had carried out more than 30 bank transactions into 10 separate accounts between May and August this year, decided to lodge a police report several days ago when the scammers kept insisting on more funds.
A police official said the woman also became suspicious as she was unable to withdraw her so-called profits, totalling RM2.5mil, from the online investment platform.
Initial investigations showed that all 10 accounts were flagged by the authorities for suspicious activities under the SemakMule portal.
“If only the victim had taken the time to check SemakMule, she would have known that some of the bank account numbers were linked to more than a dozen police reports,” the official said.
It is learnt that the woman got involved in the scam when she reached out to a company based on an online advertisement promising lucrative returns in April.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated case, a couple was arrested for duping a housewife, who is in her 80s, over a fake investment scam in Segamat.
The official said that the couple met the woman in mid-August.
“The female suspect approached the victim and started telling her about a purported lucrative investment scheme.
“They even took the woman to a nearby bank to make withdrawals of almost RM60,000 before fleeing with the money,” the official said, adding that the woman only informed her family about the incident the next day.
Both cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
