A RETIRED civil servant has become the latest scam victim when he lost RM229,800 to a non-existent investment scheme.
The elaborate scheme began when an alleged Indonesian woman befriended the male victim by asking if he was a plumber after he received a call on his cell phone.
"It was a ruse to initiative a conversation. The lady across the line was a professional sweet talker," said Bukit Mertajam district police chief Helmi Aris.
The woman caller then struck up a series of conversations with the civil servant and later encouraged him to invest in an alleged lucrative scheme downloaded from online site called timelessworld.vip.
Initially, there was a small return from the investment and this drew the civil servant to invest seven times by depositing money into a common account through seven separate transactions at five commercial banks.
After the seventh time, the victim realised there were no longer any returns, and the Indonesian caller could not be located.
Realising that he was conned, the victim lodged a police report.
Once again, Helmi urged the public not to be easily swindled and constantly check the background of those offering investment scheme online
There are official listings of investment schemes and the public can verify if it is a scam by referring to the official portals of semakmule of the police, Bank Negara Alert List and from the Security Commission, said Helmi.
Bukit Aman’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf was reported as saying that Malaysians lost RM11.23 billion to various scams over the past five years.
In 2020, police were dealing with 27,323 cases and last year, it rose to 41,701.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blocked 3.1 billion suspected scam calls as of last year. - April 30, 2025.
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