JOHOR BARU: A 42-year-old woman lost her life savings of RM672,491 after falling victim to an investment scam advertised on Facebook.
Johor police chief Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said the woman lodged a police report yesterday after she realised that she was a victim of online scammers.
The victim was offered an investment opportunity in the fallacious Malaysian stock market, with lucrative returns by a woman she got acquainted with via the social networking site.
The woman, believed to be a local, convinced the victim to make 14 cash deposits into four bank accounts, believed to be the scammer's mule account.
The victim made 14 cash transactions to four different bank accounts between May 30 and July 11, and was promised a monthly profit of RM28,000 for her investments.
It is learnt that the woman who worked as an executive in a private company, realised she was scammed out of her life savings, when the "investment broker" was no longer contactable.
She opted to lodge a police report after numerous attempts to get her "profit" were futile.
When the victim pressured the woman to bank in the promised returns on her investments, the woman gave her several excuses, including the fact that the bank allegedly conducted stringent checks because the account contained millions of dollars, which was the reason for the delay and the reason she had to bank in the investments to other bank accounts.
Kamarul Zaman said the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which carries an imprisonment term up to ten years, whipping, and a fine.
He also advised members of the public to exercise caution, especially with online dealings to refrain from falling victim to scams.
The public can go to "Portal Semak Mule" of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) which can be accessed through https://ccid.rmp.gov.my/semakmule to verify phone lines and bank accounts which have been blacklisted.