A teacher from Muallim district in Perak, Malaysia, has lost more than RM230,000 after falling victim to scammers, according to Perak police chief Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri. The 52-year-old victim reported the incident to the police on Monday, October 30, stating that she was cheated by a phone scam syndicate. The first call came on August 30, when a suspect claiming to be a post office worker in Melaka contacted the victim. The suspect alleged that she had a parcel with illegal substances under her name and instructed her to file a police report denying her involvement with the package. The call was then transferred to two other suspects posing as police officers. They informed her that her bank card had been found during a raid, a warrant had been issued against her, and accused her of selling the bank card for RM20,000 and receiving a commission of RM28,000.
On September 1, the third suspect called the victim to ask about the amount in her bank account and directed her to transfer RM49,000 from her haj savings account to a bank account under her name. On September 4, the suspect called again and told her to transfer an additional RM27,300 from her savings funds to the same account. The victim was then asked to make a personal loan of RM150,000 on September 10 and to transfer RM10,000 to an unknown bank account on September 25, with the scammers claiming it was for her legal fee in an upcoming trial in November. It was only on Monday that the victim discovered that a total of RM236,300 was missing from her bank account, with several transactions made without her knowledge to unknown bank accounts.
The case is currently under investigation for cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code. Comm Mohd Yusri advised the public to remain vigilant against phone scams. He warned against panicking when receiving calls from unknown numbers claiming to be authorities and advised hanging up immediately, as no government agency would transfer a call to another agency. He emphasized that all legal matters are conducted in person at the agency itself, not over the phone. He also urged people to never transfer money to unknown bank accounts or share their bank account details with unfamiliar individuals.
