By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, March 4: A woman in Kuching lost RM4,180 to a love scam after her ‘boyfriend’s’ bank account was frozen by international police while transferring money.
George Lam, who is special assistant to Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii, said he was approached by the victim today requesting help after the suspect, who claimed to be from the United States (US), told her that he was being detained by the Customs Department at Kuala Lumpur International Airport for bringing an excessive amount of cash.
He also said that the victim also mentioned that the ‘customs officer’ issued a bail amounting to RM6,000 because her ‘boyfriend’ was bringing an excessive amount of cash from the US to Malaysia.
Sensing something was unusual, he also asked for the victim’s ‘boyfriend’s’ travelling details and was provided with a photo of a Malaysia Airlines flight ticket (MH0752) from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur, which was clearly edited.
“Firstly, there is no direct flight between the US and Malaysia. Secondly, flight MH0752 is a flight between Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi, Vietnam. It is not the flight as stated in the photo. With that, this is clearly a scam.
“I further asked her about their ‘relationship’ and found out that they have been in contact since October 2023. They got to know each other on Facebook and furthered their contact through WhatsApp.
“Besides that, not only does the customs detention sound unusual, but she has conducted online transactions amounting to RM4,180 to five accounts at different times because her ‘boyfriend’ claimed that he had been transferring gift money to her account, but it was frozen by International Police.
“The purpose of transferring the money is to ‘unfreeze’ the money with the promise it will be credited into her account,” he said in a statement today.
He added that after convincing the victim that she was scammed, she agreed to make a police report at the Sekama police station at 11am. — DayakDaily
