GEORGE TOWN - Single mothers have been targeted by love scam syndicates over the internet where a total of 107 women have fallen prey to online scams worth RM3.5 million, until October 15 this year.
The victims, women between the ages of 40 and 60, are easy targets because they are believed to be lonely, say Penang police.
“But such ‘fatal attraction’, has caused them dearly as they have lost huge sums of money,” said Penang Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief ACP Mohd Rosni Mohd Lazim.
Rosni said that the department had so far this year recorded a total of 1511 commercial crime cases.
“Women, especially single mothers easily fall prey when sweet-talking gentlemen become their friends on social media.
“They tend to trust strangers who use caring words and show compassion before they ask the victims to transfer cash into their accounts.
“Police have also been warning the public to be cautious when they are involved in cyber transactions as the number of cases has been increasing in the last nine months,” added Rosni.
Rosni said the police have always encouraged the people to seek the advice of their family members and friends before venturing into cyber-transactions.
“The modus operandi is to call a woman and ask her to accept a gift parcel with expensive items, which the perpetrator sends.
“These culprits later ask the women to pay an ‘insurance fee’ or ‘security deposit’ in order to receive the parcel from the couriers.
“We have recorded 521 telecommunication crime cases, including the Macau Scam involving RM15.4 million,” he added.
Rosni said there was an instance where a single case alone involved a victim losing RM1.8 million.
The syndicates, he added, have trained their sights on online shoppers, as people start to buy things from the comforts of their mobile phones, or computers, following the restricted movement orders to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Fake online accounts have surfaced and the Penang CCID has received 434 reports involving RM3 million.
Meanwhile, Seberang Prai Utara (SPU) district police chief ACP Noorzainy Mohd Noor said recently that a 42-year-old woman from Kepala Batas had reported that she lost RM62,340 in an online game.
He said the online cosmetic trader in her report had stated that she was promised huge returns in profit in the game after she received an initial amount of RM6,820.
However, she then had to make 10 transactions into seven bank accounts amounting to RM62,340.
On September 30, Noorzainy said, another three individuals including a 46-year-old bank officer, a retiree and a 28-year-old housewife lost a total of RM72,700 to frauds using social media.
The bank officer from Butterworth befriended a man from London through Facebook and she was told that he had sent a parcel with cash and valuables to her address.
He added, the man then impersonated a courier company agent, before calling the victim to ask her to transfer money into a specific bank account if she wishes the parcel to be delivered to her.
“She began to realise her mistake when the person called several times again for her money after she had banked in the cash.
“Only then she decided to lodge a police report out of concern that others may fall prey to such syndicates,” he added.
In another incident in the same week, a 54-year-old retiree lost RM4,000 after receiving an initial prompt to invest in a Facebook account under the name Octafx.
He was told to invest RM350 to earn RM5,450 in a day.
Noorzainy had said the victim who was attracted by the lucrative return ended up banking in a total of RM4,000 into the perpetrator’s account – The Vibes, October 23, 2020
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