By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, June 8: A 50-year-old bank pensioner from Bintulu lost almost RM500,000 over an online investment scam after being promised a profit by the scammers.
Sarawak Commissioner of Police Dato Mancha Ata disclosed that the incident began when the victim was added to a Whatsapp group named ‘A026 Pimco Global Win – Malaysia Club’ by an unknown number at the end of April this year.
The WhatsApp group was filled by ‘investors’ in the investment of shares in the stock exchange in Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan.
According to the report, the victim received a call via WhatsApp only a few days after he was added to the group, with the suspect introducing themselves as Lele.
Lele offered the victim the opportunity to join the A026 Pimco investment by requesting the victim to download applications from Google Playstore and the sites http://www.ertsftjgf.xyz as well as http://app.xlospe.com/.
“After that, the victim was asked to contact the second agent, known as ‘Daniel’, to confirm payment into the account that the suspect provided.
“Between the end of April to the end of May this year, the victim had performed 18 transactions to three different bank accounts totalling approximately RM500,000,” said Mancha in a statement today.
The victim was promised a profit and had successfully withdrawn a total profit of approximately RM36,000.
However, at the end of May until early June this year, the victim had failed to withdraw the profits for the second time, and the suspect had instructed the victim to make an additional payment of RM200,000 if the victim wanted to withdraw the profit that is worth RM1,700,000.
The victim refused to make any more payments upon the realisation that he was scammed and appeared to have made a police report for further investigation.
The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) advises the public only to make investment platforms that are registered with the Central Bank of Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC).
In addition, the public is advised to check the legitimacy of the company and site at www.bnm.gov.my, call 1-300-88-5465 (Central Bank of Malaysia), www.sc.com.my, or call (603) 62048999 (SC). — DayakDaily
