JOHOR BAHRU, Dec 22 — Two sexagenarians lost RM2.247 million to online investment frauds.
Johor deputy police chief DCP M. Kumar said reports were received from the women — a 63-year-old housewife and a 66-year-old private company manager — both Malaysians, on Tuesday (December 19) and yesterday.
The housewife suffered a loss of over RM1.09 million after participating in a stock investment advertised on social media with the promise of lucrative returns in a short period.
“She was promised handsome profits, between eight and 44 per cent of the investment capital and can monitor the profits through an application.
“The victim started investing with a small amount and received the profit as promised, but after that, the victim no longer received any profit after investing up to RM1.09 million, and she failed to contact the suspect.
“The app could no longer be accessed by the victim,” he said in a statement today.
Kumar said the manager of a private company lost RM1.195 million due to being deceived by an individual who duped her into investing by promising large and easy profits.
“She was also instructed to download an app to monitor the investment, but after investing such a large amount, the victim only received a small amount of profit.
“After that, the suspect also failed to be contacted, and the victim could no longer access the app,” he said.
Both cases were investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code. Kumar also advised the public to be vigilant, especially when dealing with financial transactions.
The public is also urged to follow the Commercial Crime Investigation Department’s Facebook and TikTok accounts to obtain information about commercial crime modus operandi, like investment fraud.
He urged the public to use the online service Semak Mule before making any payment and downloading the Whoscall app to reduce the risk of becoming a fraud victim.
“For victims, contact the National Scam Response Centre at 997 immediately as an initial action to block the outflow of money from the suspect’s account,” Kumar said.
— Bernama
