KUALA TERENGGANU: A civil servant here has lost RM150,000 after being cheated by a phone scam syndicate.
Kuala Terengganu OCPD Asst Comm Azli Mohd Noor said the 43-year-old woman was contacted by a male suspect posing as an insurance company representative on Nov 4.
He said the suspect claimed that her personal information had been abused, before connecting her to another suspect posing as a police officer.
"The second suspect threatened to arrest the victim because she was found to be involved in criminal activities and money laundering.
"He ordered the victim to take out a bank loan and open a new account to deposit the money," he said in a statement on Friday (Jan 9).
ACP Azli said the victim, who was afraid she would be jailed, took out a personal loan and gave her bank details to the suspect to avoid legal action.
He said she realised she had been scammed after finding that the loan amount of RM150,000 in the new account had disappeared.
"Upon checking, there was a transfer of money from the victim's account to an unknown account on Tuesday (Jan 6).
"The victim lodged a police report on Thursday (Jan 8) and the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating," he said. – Bernama
