KUALA LUMPUR: A woman has defrauded at least 15 people of RM547,650 by falsely claiming to sell multiple plots of land.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said that investigations into the suspect's activities began in 2016.
He said the woman would enter into agreements with landowners to purchase plots and then falsely advertise these same plots as subplots for sale to multiple buyers.
"She would show convincing documents, including land sale agreements and power of attorney papers from the original landowners, to gain the victims' trust."
"Victims believed her and made payments for the subplots they were interested in," he told reporters today.
The scam, he said, involved six plots of land in Selangor, with four bank accounts identified as receiving payments from the victims.
He added that two of these accounts were under the suspect's name, one was linked to a company associated with her, and the fourth account is still under investigation.
Ramli said further investigations revealed additional individuals were involved in the scam.
The suspect, he said, had already been charged with cheating in four cases related to land sales, with ongoing court proceedings.
"Just yesterday (Aug 12), the woman, in her 40's, was picked up by police in Gombak in connection with another case of land sale fraud.
"In this case, the suspect was alleged to have cheated a 59-year-old retiree of RM60,400," he said, adding that a police report was lodged on Aug 4 by the victim.
According to Ramli, the victim informed the police that on Nov 5, 2021, he signed a sales and purchase agreement with the registered owners of the land based on the power of attorney given to the suspect.
He said the victim was assured that the suspect bought the entire land which was 1.62 hectares.
"The victim was also informed that the suspect is in the process of applying to divide the land into 92 sub-plots.
"However, after the payment was made to the suspect, no development was made on the land and the division of the lot was not done either," he said, adding that the victim also met with one of the original owners of the land who later informed him that he did not receive any payment from the suspect for the purpose of purchasing the land.
Ramli said until now, the ownership of the land remained in the name of the original owner and the suspect has been remanded for three days to facilitate further investigations.