Two women in Labuan duped of RM584,100
LABUAN: Two women lost their life savings amounting to RM584,100 after falling prey to phone scams, known as the Macau and African Scams, this month.
The first case, which happened on Nov 1, involves a 39-year-old academician who thought she found true love online, but ended up heartbroken and broke. She fell victim to a romance scam.
She lost RM376,100 to her month-old ‘fake lover’ whom she had come to know on Facebook.
The man duped her into believing he was a pilot from Canada and offered her US$500, perfume, jewellery and other luxury items as ‘love gifts’ of their online relationship.
“Not long after, the woman received a call from the man that the gifts had arrived but were being held by the Customs Department due to the US$500 currency and the jewellery.
“The man told the woman she was required to settle the customs’ duties via several different accounts to claim the money and the items, and the woman made all the payments,” Labuan deputy police chief DSP Ibrahim Ghani said at a press conference here yesterday.
He said after making the payments, the woman was threatened by the man not to disclose the matter to anyone or she would be arrested for her involvement in money-laundering instead.
Another case involves a 49-yearold housewife who was convinced her accounts were jeopardised after being implicated in a socalled money-laundering case.
Little did she know her case was just a fabrication, leading to her entire life savings going up in smoke.
Ibrahim said the woman received a call from an unknown man at the end of last month, informing her she has credit card dues with a local bank and she had also been involved in money laundering.
“She was told by the man she must transfer all her money into an account for investigation,” he said.
The suspect used void telephone lines of the police, Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) and Bank Negara to make calls to dupe the victim, he said, adding that the victim was also asked to dispose of all the bank transfer slips.
Ibrahim said the two cases were not isolated as the Labuan police have recorded a total of 37 cases online and phone scams involving RM1,329,110 since January.
Of the number, three cases were African Scam or better known as Love Scam involving RM404,350, two were Macau Scam of RM207,880 and 32 were Internet purchase scams that involved RM716,880.
Ibrahim said he hoped that the cases serve as a lesson to members of the public to be wary of the various scams.