Compiled by ALLISON LAI, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTAN
AN elderly woman in Taipei, Taiwan, dropped NT$22mil (RM2.8mil) in gold bars after a fall in the street, which raised suspicion from passing police officers, reported China Press.
The woman, who had just left a bank, tripped and fell as she was walking in the street.
Police officers helped her up but discovered that she dropped a large number of solid gold bars on the ground.
Suspecting something was amiss, they questioned her and found out that she had just withdrawn everything from her safe-deposit box at the bank.
The woman, whose surname is Chen, said she was planning to hand over the gold bars to a friend but was unable to explain what they would be used for.
Suspecting that it was a scam, police officers contacted the woman’s family members and asked them to come to the scene.
The woman’s daughter and grandson arrived and said they knew nothing of the plan, believing that she may have fallen for a scam.
Police officers and family members explained to Chen the various stories scam syndicates use to deceive victims.
They urged her not to hand over valuables without verifying the other party’s identity and purpose of payment.
The woman abandoned her original plan and left the gold bars with family members for safekeeping.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
