By DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Oct 21: A 60-year-old cement worker has lost his entire life savings of RM56,000 after falling victim to a scammer posing as a police officer, prompting him to seek help from Padungan assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen.
In a statement, the victim, identified as Chu, received a phone call on Oct 13 from an individual claiming to be a police officer, who alleged that his bank account had been used by unauthorised persons.
The caller then instructed him to transfer all his savings to a so-called “Bank Negara” account for investigation purposes.
Panicking, Chu followed the caller’s instructions and proceeded to an ATM of a local bank to carry out the transfer.
Unfamiliar with the process, he was guided over the phone to make two transfers amounting to RM30,000 on Oct 13 and RM26,000 on Oct 14 to two separate bank accounts provided by the scammer.
After the second transfer, Chu became suspicious and sought help from a friend to lodge a police report on Oct 17. Despite this, the scammer continued to contact him through phone calls and WhatsApp messages, even sending a photograph of a supposed high-ranking police officer to pressure him into making further transfers.
Seeking further assistance, Chu turned to Chong, who today wrote a letter to the Sarawak Police Commissioner on behalf of the victim, urging that the case be given personal attention and the culprit brought to justice.
“In all these scam cases, regardless of how many times the fund was transferred, the money will still be in the banking system and electronically traceable and trackable, thus can be recovered.
“The scammers must physically withdraw cash from the recipient bank accounts so that the money can be taken out of the banking system. Banks are supposed to have records of such withdrawals, and there are CCTVs at all bank outlets and ATMs,” said the Stampin MP.
Chong, who is also the chairman of the Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP), said it still puzzled him how money could be taken out from the country’s banking system so easily without a trace.
“Is it that the banks are guilty of not cooperating to fight these scams, such that once the money is transferred out to another bank, the transferor banks simply wash their hands and couldn’t be bothered anymore?” he questioned. — DayakDaily
