KUALA LUMPUR: A retiree lost RM14,000 after falling victim to scammers on TikTok who promised to secure Malaysian permanent resident status for his Chinese wife.
The 73-year-old victim, who is disabled, 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 services 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 also requested an additional 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 services similar to those of Soo.
A police report was lodged on May 18, in which the victim 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 at a press conference with the victim yesterday that there was a possibility that “Kenny Soo” and another woman, Chong Siau Fei, could have been victims themselves, as scammers could have misused their identities.
“Normally, if it is a scammer, they will never put up their real identity,” he said.
He urged both individuals to lodge a police report if their identities had been misused by scammers.
When met after the press conference, the victim said he would no longer be pursuing his bid to obtain PR for his wife and would resort to the usual visa process instead.
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 Master’s degree in 2023, and the agent had informed her that she could begin her PhD application and that she needed 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 by a woman she met through the RedNote platform to buy six sets of hearing aids priced between RM2,950 and RM7,600 each from Malaysia.
The woman had not received the goods, and her total loss was RM31,450.
Chong urged Chinese nationals to check with MCA or the embassy before they invest, adding that there had already been many such scam cases.
