Retired teacher lost RM317,500 to Macau scammers

BATU PAHAT: A retired teacher lost RM317,500 after she fell victim to the Macau scam.

The victim, 60, received a call at 10.30am from a man claiming to be a court employee who then connected her to a “policeman” one day last week.

Acting Batu Pahat OCPD Supt KS Mender Singh said the woman was told that arrears in credit card payment and the card had been used by someone to commit crime.

“They also told her that the offences were connected to drug smuggling and money laundering activities.

“The woman did as she was told and gave details of her bank account as well as banked in RM317,500 into another account,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Supt KS Mender said the victim was promised that the money would be returned upon completion of the investigation, which would take less than 30 minutes.

“The woman realised she had been cheated when she did not get back the money after 30 minutes, and she could not call back the phone number,” he said.

The woman then lodged a report at the Batu Pahat police headquarters.

The Macau scam often starts with a phone call from someone pretending to be an officer from the police force, a bank, government agency or debt collector.

The scammer will claim that the potential victim owes money or has an unpaid fine, often with a very short window of less than an hour to settle the payment, or else the person will face “dire consequences”.

These unsuspecting victims will then be asked to make payments to get them off the hook.