At least 14 hit by ‘assassin’ scam calls

MIRI: At least 14 police reports have been filed here after the victims received threatening calls demanding payment to escape being slain by an ‘assassin’.

Among them was a businesswoman in her 50s, who only wanted to be identified as Chan.

She claimed to have received several threatening calls from two numbers – 010-8176289 and 082241322.

“The person, speaking in fluent Malay, told me that he was an ‘assassin’ and had been hired to kill me. As I am English educated, I didn’t really understand what he was talking about and quickly hung up on him.

“Later, that person kept harassing me and continued to call using a different number, but I have ignored and blocked the calls,” she told The Borneo Post.

Sensing something amiss, Chan lodged a police report the same afternoon.

“To my surprise, when I was making the police report at the Central police station, I was told by the officer that I was the 14th person to lodge a similar report. I got lucky because I kept ignoring the person so they didn’t get the chance to speak further.

“The officer even said that other victims were blackmailed and had huge sums of money demanded from them,” said Chan.

She added the police officer told her that criminal intimidation is a serious offence and those receiving such threats must lodge reports to protect themselves and enable the police to take action.