MIRI: Two individuals, a woman and a businessman, have fallen victim to fraud, resulting in losses amounting to nearly RM90,000.
District police chief ACP Alexson Naga Chabu said the Commercial Crime Investigation Division received two police reports on Jan 12.
The first case involved a local woman in her 40s who was duped by a fraudulent part-time job advertisement on Facebook.
The scheme promised profit returns for completing assigned tasks. Lured by the attractive offer, the victim made payments to five different bank accounts via online money transfers.
After realising she had not received the promised payment, she discovered she had been deceived and suffered a financial loss totalling RM 59,842.46.
The second case involved a 30-year-old local businessman who received a call from someone claiming to be a Shopee representative, alleging a complaint from the Perak Health Department regarding illegal skincare sales linked to the victim’s account.
The call was then transferred to individuals posing as police officers from Perak and Kuala Lumpur, who falsely claimed there was an arrest warrant for him for drug and money laundering offences.
The scammers threatened to freeze all his bank accounts and coerced him into transferring money to two separate bank accounts.
Only after he was asked for additional payments after the initial transaction did the victim realised he had been scammed, suffering a loss of RM30,000.
Investigations are underway.
