Local Bank Clerk Loses Savings Of RM585,700 To Whatsapp Investment Scam

The clerk fell for the scam after meeting a woman who claimed to be an investment advisor on WhatsApp.

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Another investment scam has yet again caused distress to a local citizen. This time, a local bank clerk fell victim upon coming across a woman on WhatsApp, who claimed to be an investment advisor.

According to Jasin police chief DSP Ahmad Jamil Radzi, the suspect had introduced herself as a consultant from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) with an investment offer.

The suspect claimed that the victim could earn a profit of RM15,467 by only investing RM300 into the plan. However, the suspect noted that the offer was available only within three to six hours.

“The suspect also enticed the victim by telling her that the investment does not impose broker fees or hidden charges, and gives a big return quickly,” said Ahmad in the official statement.

The 52-year-old victim then made a transaction of RM300 into a Maybank account, before making 64 more transactions into 31 different accounts. The total amounted to RM585,400, with various purposes related to the investment.

She had only realised that she had been scammed after being asked to pay a fee of RM10,000 for telephone bills by a telecommunications company.

The company supposedly was associated with the investment scheme. She was then prompted to lodge a complaint to the police.

“The victim then made a report on Nov 7 at about 11.40am at the Jasin district police headquarters (IPD) and said the money for the investment was from savings apart from jewellery sold and pawned for the non-existent investment,” said Ahmad.

Ahmad hopes the general public will learn from this and stay vigilant about unverified investment advertisements.

He indeed encouraged members of the public to verify investment opportunities through the applications provided by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) of the Royal Malaysian Police.

For the website, they can be verified through ccid.rmp.gov.my/semakmule. As for WhatsApp, they can be checked through the hotline 0132111222. They can also be checked through the official JSJK Facebook page.

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