KUALA LUMPUR: A retiree lost RM14,000 after falling victim to scammers on TikTok promising that they could secure Malaysian permanent resident status for his Chinese wife.
The 73-year-old victim came across a TikTok account under the handle Kenny Soo Kee, who offered services to secure MyPR for foreigners.
The victim later sought Soo’s service and was asked to make several rounds of payments to purported "National Registration Department (NRD) officers".
Soo then sent him a video clip showing that his wife’s MyPR was allegedly ready, and that the chip could be read using a card reader.
He then requested an additional payment of RM10,000, which he claimed would be paid to Immigration officers.
Soo also declined the couple’s request to meet him in person at least once before making any further payment.
The victim also found another individual named Vivian on TikTok who offered similar services as Soo.
A police report was lodged on May 18, in which the victim had stated that the NRD and Immigration Department had confirmed that the documents given to him were fake.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said in a press conference with the victim on Wednesday (May 20) that there was a possibility that “Kenny Soo” and another woman, Chong Siau Fei, could have been victims themselves, where scammers could have misused their identities.
“Normally, if it is a scammer, they will never put their real identity,” he said.
He urged both individuals to lodge a police report if their identities had been misused by scammers.
Chong also revealed two other scam cases involving Chinese nationals.
In the second case, a 45-year-old PhD student lost RM87,600 to a student agent whom she met through a friend in 2023.
The woman had returned to China after completing her Masters degree in 2023 and the agent had informed her that she could begin her application for her PhD and that she had to transfer money for the process.
She later found out that the agent had only paid a little over RM10,000 to the college. After a confrontation, he verbally agreed to refund the balance amount.
He had since blocked all communication with her, following which she lodged a police report on May 12.
In the third case, a woman from China was asked to purchase six sets of hearing aids priced between RM2,950 and RM7,600 per set, from Malaysia, by a woman she came into contact with through the RedNote platform. Her total loss was RM31,450.
Chong urged Chinese nationals to check with MCA and the embassy before they invest.
“We have many cases already,” he added.
