Elderly woman loses RM38,000 to lottery ticket scam

IPOH: A 75-year-old woman has lost nearly all of her savings over a “winning lottery ticket”.

The woman, who wished to be known only as Yong, said she met a foreigner on Wednesday asking for her help to claim his lottery winnings amounting to RM500,000.

“I was on my way home after my doctor’s appointment at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital around 11.15am when I was approached by the man.

“He needed my help because as a foreigner, he could not claim the winning prize. He offered me RM100,000 but I declined because I just wanted to help him,” she said at a press conference organised by Canning assemblyman Jenny Choy Tsi Jen at Kampung Simee here yesterday.

Yong said while they were talking, two other men, in their 50s and 60s, approached them and offered to bring them to the lottery shop and bank.

One of the men even showed them a copy of a newspaper displaying the numbers for the winning ticket.

She said when they arrived at the lottery shop, she was asked to stay in the car while one of them went inside.

He later returned to tell Yong that they need to cash in the winning cheque.

“One of them told me that he needed RM50,000 to open an account to cash the prize.

“They brought me to a bank at Taman Ipoh Selatan and I withdrew RM10,000.

“Since the amount was not sufficient, I told them about my fixed deposit, and they drove me to my house to get the receipt,” said Yong.

The four of them then headed to another bank in Jalan Tun Sambanthan where Yong withdrew her fixed deposit worth RM28,306.

“After I handed over the money, they asked me to make copies of my identity card in Jalan Sultan Iskandar.

“When I arrived at one of the shops, I realised they had fled,” she said.

Choy advised the public to be more aware of such scams.