Photo shows the police crest.
KUCHING (Aug 20): A male retiree and a housewife in Padawan district lost RM39,000 and RM66,000 respectively after falling victim to Macau scams.
Padawan police deputy chief DSP Lim Jaw Shyong said around 9.15am on Wednesday (Aug 18), the retiree received a call at his residence in Siburan from a ‘Mr Lee’, claiming to be from the court police division, who said his son had been apprehended for drugs.
“To release the victim’s son and settle the case, the victim was ordered to make a cash payment of RM30,000 to a Maybank account under a company’s name, then the victim was asked to pay RM9,000 to the same account. The victim was then ordered to destroy the proof of payment receipts while waiting for the victim’s son to be released.
“After the payments were made, the victim then contacted his son to ask him on his condition. Having realised that he was scammed, he went to the police station to lodge a report,” Lim said in a statement.
As for the housewife, Lim said the victim received a call from a suspect on Aug 8, who claimed to be a management officer from the headquarters of a telecommunications company in Kuala Lumpur.
The victim was then ordered to contact the Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department for being involved in illegal online gambling, he said.
“According to the victim, the suspect presented himself as a police officer from Seremban district police and during the phone call, the victim was interviewed, during which the suspect successfully obtained the 16-digit number of the victim’s ATM card as well as information regarding the victim’s money in her savings account and her ASB account.
“The suspect then ordered the victim to transfer all her funds to a CIMB account at a total of RM66,000,” he said.
The victim only realised she was scammed after receiving a call from her child, who was suspicious of the victim’s actions and advised her to lodge a police report.
Both cases are being investigated under Section 402 of the Penal Code.