GEORGE TOWN: A scientist lost almost RM500,000 after falling victim to an online investment scam that promised lucrative returns.
State police chief Comm Datuk Azizee Azizee Ismail said the 26-year-old man lodged a police report on Monday (Dec 1) claiming he had been cheated by scammers posing as online investment agents.
Comm Azizee said the victim first came across the scheme after getting to know a suspect through the Xion Hong Shu application in early September, where the suspect introduced the investment scheme.
The victim subsequently communicated with the male suspect via the same application, who allegedly promoted a forex trading investment claiming it would generate high returns within a short period based on the amount of capital invested.
When the victim expressed interest in joining, he was instructed to download an application for membership registration and to participate in the investment.
On Oct 6, the victim made the first payment amounting to RM4,500 into a bank account of an individual. On the same day, he received a profit of RM4,754 and the profit was successfully withdrawn.
Confident that the investment scheme was profitable, the victim then increased his investment up to RM466,078.51.
He made 13 transactions between Oct 6 and Nov 17 into seven different bank accounts.
Comm Azizee said the victim realised he had been deceived when he attempted to withdraw the profits shown in the application but was unable to do so, and was instead asked to make additional payments in order to proceed with the withdrawal.
The victim became suspicious and suspected he had been scammed, and subsequently lodged a police report to enable an investigation to be carried out.
The case is investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
