A senior citizen in Petaling Jaya has lost more than RM1.3 million to a Macau scam.
Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid said the incident occurred at around 2pm on April 1.
“The woman was at her house in Petaling Jaya when she received a call from a ‘bank’ claiming that a credit card registered under her name was used to buy bitcoins via social media.
“She denied making such purchases, and the caller then connected her to someone who claimed to work at Bank Negara,” he said in a statement on Monday (May 17).
He said the victim gave all her personal information to the “Bank Negara employee” who offered to lodge a police report on her behalf.
“The next day, the victim received a copy of the report through WhatsApp and was contacted by an individual claiming to be from the police.
“The victim was instructed to provide all her banking information to refresh her account in order to avoid abuse by others,” he said.
The victim was also instructed to request authorisation codes from her bank which she then gave to the caller, ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin added.
“On May 10, the victim contacted Bank Negara to check on the case and was informed that the calls she received were bogus.
“She checked her seven accounts and found that they had all been emptied,” he said, adding that the woman lost RM1,303,710 in total.
ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin advised the public not to panic and fall for scams and idle threats made by such syndicates.
“If you receive suspicious calls, contact the police at once for verification,” he said, adding that this syndicate targets senior citizens who were less savvy about cyber crimes.