MIRI – A woman in Miri city has reportedly lost RM250,000 of her life savings to a bogus Bukit Aman “Datuk” and police impersonators who frightened her into believing she is on the verge of being arrested for numerous criminal offences.
The private company clerk aged in her 40s lodged a police report in Miri, said state police chief commissioner Datuk Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri.
The bogus Datuk and group of police impersonators had, over a series of calls and messages from July to early August (last week), bombarded the clerk with accusations that she was involved in human trafficking, misappropriating other people’s personal documents and ATM cards, and other allegations, he said in a press statement.
The bogus cops and Datuk then coaxed her into obeying their instructions if she wanted them to help her resolve her case.
She was told to transfer her savings to eight different bank accounts given by the bogus Datuk for investigation so that her name could be cleared fast.
“The clerk panicked when confronted by all the accusations against her and she made a series of banking transfers involving her savings of RM250,000 as instructed to eight different bank accounts provided by the impersonators.
“Shortly later, she found that the bogus Datuk and other bogus cops have severed contact with her.
“Realising she had been scammed, she told her siblings about the matter, and they told her to lodge the police report,” said Azman.
A similar case involving a bogus Bukit Aman cop was also reported on July 27 in Sibu district in central Sarawak.
The bogus cop had frightened an e-hailing driver into parting with his life savings in what is yet another phone scam.
Sibu district police chief Zulkipli Suhaili said the driver claimed in his report that he had been cheated out of RM78,590 by the bogus cop.
Almost every day in Sarawak, there are reports of people being cheated by bogus cops, bogus enforcement agencies, investment scams and job scams by swindlers operating via WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms and telecommunication devices. – The Vibes, August 13, 2023
