Retiree loses inheritance money to scammers

SEREMBAN: A 66-year-old retiree from Port Dickson lost almost RM110,000 of his inheritance from his father after he fell for a Macau scam.

State Commercial Crimes Investigation Department chief Supt Aibee Ab Ghani said the retiree, who used to work in the oil and gas industry, had received a call on Dec 10 from a man.

Introducing himself as Sergeant Lee from the Ipoh district police station, the man alleged that the retiree’s savings were from ill-gotten gains.

“The retiree told the suspect that the money in his bank account was not from ill-gotten gains but had been inherited from his father.

“However, the suspect then ordered the retiree to transfer the money into another account to allow the police to probe the case,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Supt Aibee said the retiree had gone to a bank on Dec 13 and transferred RM50,000 into an account belonging to one Hadir Andi.

The suspect then sent him via Whatsapp a copy of a letter purportedly from the National Audit Department stating that his case was being probed and told him that he would have to transfer more of his savings.

On Dec 14, the retiree made two other transactions totalling RM53,500 into the same bank account.

Another RM5,000 was transferred the following day.

“When the retiree called the suspect, he was told that the cash would be returned to him once the probe had been completed.

“However, when the retiree did not hear from him after a few days, he realised that he had been cheated and lodged a police report,” he said.

The case is being probed under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.