KUALA TERENGGANU: An assistant landscape architect lost RM67,789 after being scammed by a fake online part-time job syndicate.
Kuala Terengganu OCPD Asst Comm Azli Mohd Noor said the 20-year-old female victim saw a part-time job offer on Instagram last Friday (Dec 12).
He said the victim was enticed enough to contact the suspect via WhatsApp and was asked to provide her personal information ostensibly to start work at a “Padini Holding company”.
"The victim, who is from Kampung Kubang Parit here, was then instructed to contact the suspect's friend on Telegram and pay a RM10 registration fee.
"After that, the victim was instructed to enter a website to buy random items to get a commission. However, the victim needs to make a payment first and the money will be returned along with the commission to the victim's account," ACP Azli said in a statement on Monday.
Azli said the victim was initially very happy to have received a refund and commission for the first two tasks.
According to him, she became increasingly confident and trusting and completed 14 other tasks, but failed to receive any profit and refund as promised.
"The victim made payments totalling RM67,789 to five different bank accounts for the task from Friday to Sunday.
"The victim lodged a police report at 10.29pm on Monday after failing to receive the promised refund and commission, besides efforts to contact the suspect also failed. The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code," he said. - Bernama
