LIMBANG: A 31-year-old woman from Kampung Mulaut, Brunei was made poorer by RM153,500 after she fell victim to a parcel scam syndicate.
A police report on the scam was lodged by her husband at Limbang police station last Sunday morning.
According to commercial crime police chief Supt Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah in a statement yesterday, it all started last June when the woman, who is also a government servant, befriended an American guy named ‘Zacky’ who offered to give her jewellery as a friendship gift.
‘Zacky’ assured her that the jewellery would be couriered to Brunei.
A few days later, she received a call from ‘Zacky’, who told her that she was required to pay in order to release the ‘parcel’ from Brunei customs.
She made a total of RM153,500 in three payments on August 13, 16 and 21 to two different bank accounts. She eventually realised she was cheated and told her husband about it, which led to the lodging of the police report last Sunday.
Supt Mustafa Kamal disclosed that 102 parcel scams involving RM5.8 million were reported in Sarawak from January to December 2018.
“From Jan 1 to Aug 26 this year, there were 66 parcel scams involving RM3.4 million in losses,” he said.
He added that 10 arrests were made between January and December last year. There were 15 arrests between last Jan 1 and last Monday.
