By Tedong Rantayy
MIRI, March 20: The Miri District Police Commercial Crime Investigation Division is investigating three scam cases involving the purchase of non-existent assets and fake employment offers, with total losses amounting to RM233,923.
Miri District Police Chief ACP Alexson Naga Chabu said all three reports were lodged on March 18.
Two of the cases involved victims being deceived into purchasing surveillance engineering tools from a non-existent company, M.N. Seven Trading or Blue Triangle Solution.
A local female contractor in her 40s lost RM66,000, while a local businessman in his 30s lost RM89,100.
In a separate incident, a local company director in her 40s was duped into a fraudulent online job offer received via WhatsApp. Promised a 10 to 20 per cent commission for completing tasks, she believed the offer to be legitimate and proceeded to book hotel rooms and transferred funds as part of the assigned tasks.
However, she never received payment, resulting in a loss of RM78,823.
All three cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which carries a punishment of imprisonment between one and ten years, whipping, and a fine upon conviction.
The police urge the public to exercise caution before engaging in online transactions, particularly those involving project bids and job offers.
The public should be wary of deals that appear too good to be true and verify the legitimacy of companies and registration numbers before making any payments.
Additionally, avoid responding to unsolicited calls from unknown persons. Victims of cyber scams, including fake job offers, non-existent loans, love scams, e-commerce fraud, and phone scams, are encouraged to contact the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) via 997 if they have fallen prey to such schemes or recently made suspicious transactions to an unknown bank account or e-wallet. – DayakDaily
