SIBU: A young engineer suffered a substantial loss of RM247,000 after falling victim to a sophisticated online investment scam.
Sibu OCPD Asst Comm Zulkipli Suhaili revealed that on Sept 1, the local man, in his twenties, came across a seemingly credible investment advertisement on a Facebook page operating under the name similar to a legitimate online trading platform.
“The victim clicked on the advertisement link and shortly thereafter received messages via the WhatsApp application from multiple numbers, before being added to a WhatsApp group called ‘New Dream Voyage 5’, which purportedly provided detailed information about stock investments,” he said in a statement on Friday (Nov 21)
ACP Zulkipli added that the man was instructed to download the dubious "WHGroup" application, which allegedly claimed affiliation with Windsor Heritage Capital and Nexi Speak Global Companies.
“Throughout the entire investment process, the victim was not provided with any official documents or written agreements, receiving only information through WhatsApp messages,” he said.
He disclosed that between Oct 20 and Nov 9, the victim conducted 15 separate transactions into a local account, amounting to a staggering RM247,000.
“He was initially given an investment return of RM28,000, a small sum intended to convince him to continue transferring money. However, once the payments were successfully made, he was unable to withdraw any promised profits.
“Suspicion arose when he was asked to increase his investment by an additional RM250,000, at which point he realised he had been defrauded and promptly lodged a police report," said ACP Zulkipli.
An investigation has been opened under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
