WHEN looking for opportunities to grow their money, many look for investment opportunities that are offered by government bodies due to the perceived safeguards that come with these schemes.
As such, it would seem logical that scammers would pose as these government bodies to trick potential victims.
It was claimed online recently that scammers are posing as the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) to get people to “invest” in a non-existent fund.
Is there any truth to this?
This was confirmed by Jasin OCPD Deputy Supt Ahmad Jamil Radzi, who said that a 52-year-old bank clerk lost close to RM585,000 of her life savings after being duped by to invest in a non-existent fund by scammers posing as MIDA
He said the victim was lured by attractive payments purportedly offered by MIDA, where it was claimed that an initial investment of RM300 could yield a return of RM15,470 in less than six hours.
“The victim received a message on Whatsapp from a woman on Oct 10 identifying herself as a financial consultant who supposedly offered high-returns for a small investment.
“She then expressed her interest after being told that she need not pay for broker fees where she deposited RM300 into a bank account belonging to Abang Rahmani Mohidin”,he said on Thursday (Nov 9).
DSP Ahmad Jamil said the victim was then told thather first investment was yielding high returns and she was instructed to deposit more money into various bank accounts provided by the woman to gain more money.
He said the victim has since deposited RM585,400 into 31 different bank accounts through 64 transactions between Oct 10 to Oct 27.
DSP Ahmad Jamil then said the victim took out all her savings from her fixed deposit, Amanah Saham Nasional Berhad and Tabung Haji and even pawned her gold rings to raise the money.
He said the victim only realised that she had been cheated after she was asked to pay RM10,000 for additional telephone charges in order to get back the money that she had already deposited.
DSP Ahmad Jamil then said that the case is being investigated under Section 402 of the Penal Code for cheating and he advised members of the public to be alert and very careful so as not to end up being victims of such scams.