KOTA TINGGI: A senior citizen lost RM212,000 after falling victim to a phone scam involving individuals impersonating a logistics company representative and a police officer.
On July 31, the 63-year-old man received a call from a man claiming to be from a logistics company and said there was a package purportedly sent by him to a premise in Shah Alam, Selangor.
However, the individual noted that the call needed to be transferred to a police officer due to suspicions about the package.
The "officer" claimed that the victim was involved in money laundering activities, based on the content of the package that he purportedly sent.
District police chief Superintendent Hussin Zamora said the victim lodged a police report yesterday after he made 29 bank transfers to six different accounts as instructed by the fraudsters.
He was instructed to make payments to cover the costs of the investigations and audit.
Between the end of July and Monday, the victim was constantly harassed by the "policeman" to make additional payments, which totalled RM212,000.
"The victim realised he had been scammed when the suspects failed to provide updates on the supposed money laundering charges, despite making the payments," Hussin said in a statement today.
The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
Hussin said police would never ask for cash transfers and urged the public to be vigilant and verify account numbers before making any transactions to strangers.