By Malcolm Lau
KUCHING, June 22: The public is urged to be more careful and alert as Macau scammers pretending to be government authorities have been increasing their deceitful activities.
“The Macau scam calls are getting active recently as police officers received Macau scams police reports almost every day,” Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Supt Maria Rasid revealed in the press release.
“The suspects will make the victim panic and scared, causing the victim to believe in what the scammers say.”
According to Maria, a total of 136 Macau scams were reported to the police from Jan 1 until June 21.
A total of 79 Macau scam suspects have been arrested over the same period.
She also highlighted two recent Macau scam reports which were lodged in Sri Aman and Limbang respectively.
The first case in Limbang involved where a 60-year-old retiree who was deceived by scammers who had pretended to be telecommunication officers and police personnel.
The female victim was initially told by the scammers that she was involved in online gambling activity and later passed on to other scammers pretending to be police officers investigating the case. The victim was later told by the scammers to transfer her money into a bank account given by them for investigation purposes.
“A total of RM516,000 was transferred through 20 transactions into 12 different bank accounts from April 15 to May 22. The victim felt fooled (afterwards) and immediately lodge the police report,” Maria added.
Meanwhile, the second case reported in Sri Aman involved a 42-year-old female public officer who received a call from a scammer pretending to be a tax officer.
“The second victim was later connected to another scammer who pretended to be a police officer and had alleged the victim received RM228,000 by selling her automated teller machine card to suspects who were involved in drug activities,” Maria disclosed.
The victim was later connected to a purported bank officer who asked the victim to transfer RM6,600 to them for investigation purposes. The victim realised she had been scammed after the transfer and subsequently lodged the police report.
“Suspects will be using reasons such as tax avoidance, police summonses, hit-and-run cases, crimes and others to scam the victim,” Maria pointed out.
She urged the public not to panic and be scared although they are threatened by the suspects. The public may call the police directly for advice and must not transfer any money when asked to pay through ATM machine.
Members of the public may contact the police through the CCID infoline at 013-2111222 if they receive any Macau scam calls. — DayakDaily
