Macau Scam: Assistant officer, housewife lost over RM380,000

KUANTAN - Two individuals are in despair as they lose their savings amounting to RM380,190 to Macau Scam.

The first victim was a 45-year-old agricultural assistant officer, while the other was a 37-year-old housewife.

Pahang Police Chief Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the first victim who lived in Maran was said to have received a call from an insurance officer who claimed he had made a fake insurance claim in November last year.

He said the victim was asked to make a police report and the call was immediately connected to an individual who was supposedly disguising as a police officer.

"After that, the suspect informed the victim that he was involved in a money laundering and corruption case and was asked to pay a bail of RM400,000 to settle the case.

"Acting on fear, the victim disclosed all the banking information of his account until he found out that his savings with the amount of RM215,100 were gone through 33 transfer transactions to other bank accounts that have not yet been identified," he said in a statement on Saturday.

In the second incident, Ramli said a woman who lives in Temerloh received a phone call from an individual posing as an employee of a delivery company on Jan 13.

Ramli said the suspect claimed that the victim received prohibited items such as Sim cards, ATM cards, chequebooks, bank tokens and pendrives which were sent to a recipient.

He added that the victim's call was connected to an individual posing as a police officer and informed that the complainant's personal information was used by a man to open a bank account.

"The man involved told the police that the victim gave permission to use her bank account for money laundering.

"Then, the suspect gave a link to the victim to fill in the banking information besides asking the victim to transfer all the money from Tabung Haji's savings to the bank account opened on the suspect's instructions," he said.

Ramli said that on Jan 17, the victim discovered that RM165,090 in savings had been transferred through eight transactions.

He advised the public who received suspicious calls to immediately check with the police or the relevant government agency to avoid becoming a victim of fraud.

"Do not disclose any banking information when asked.

"The police are quite disappointed because despite awareness campaigns held continuously, there are still victims who fell for the scam and lose hundreds of thousands of ringgit," he said.