BINTULU – A bank pensioner in his 50s here has lost about RM500,000 to an online investment scam.
According to Sarawak police commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata, the victim was added into a WhatsApp group called “A026 Pimco Global Win-Malaysia Club” by an unknown person in late April.
The group was allegedly joined by investors who invested on the Malaysian, Thai, and Taiwan stock exchanges.
“A few days after he was added to the group, the victim was contacted via WhatsApp by the suspect, who introduced himself as ‘Lele’.
“The suspect offered the victim to join the ‘A026 Pimco’ investment and asked the victim to download an application from a website,” he said in a statement.
Mancha said the victim was then requested to contact the second agent, known as “Daniel”, to confirm the payment to the account provided by the suspect.
“Between the end of April and the end of May, the victim made 18 money transfer transactions totalling approximately RM500,000 to three bank accounts.
“The victim was promised a profit and had successfully withdrawn a profit of about RM36,000.”
Mancha said the victim subsequently failed to withdraw the profit for the second time between the end of May and the beginning of June and was instructed by the suspect to pay an additional RM200,000 if he wanted to withdraw the profit of RM1.7 million.
“However, the victim refused to make any further payments and realised that he had been duped,” he said, adding that a police report was lodged by the victim on June 7.
The public is advised to only invest with investment platforms registered with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Securities Commission (SC).
They can check the company’s legitimacy on Bank Negara Malaysia’s website, the Securities Commission’s website, by calling 1300-88-5465 (BNM telelink) or 03-62048999 (SC).
Scam victims can also contact the National Scam Response Centre at 997. – June 9, 2024