MIRI: A woman in her sixties lost RM31,700 to a fraudulent business deal.
Miri police chief ACP Alexson Naga Chabu said that the senior citizen intended to sell scrap metal as a means of generating additional income.
However, during the process of negotiating with potential buyers, the victim fell prey to a scam.
“The unfortunate event began when she was attracted to an advertisement on Facebook in February this year, which offered to purchase scrap metal in large quantities at attractive prices,” Alexson said.
The police received a report on the incident on March 17 (Sunday).
“On March 15, the suspect initiated contact with the victim, expressing interest in purchasing the items.
During their conversations, the suspect provided the victim with a link for payment to seal the deal.
“She was asked to download a specific app onto her device and to log into the app using her online banking username and password,” he said.
Alexson disclosed that the victim attempted to make payments as instructed via the mobile app multiple times, but, unfortunately, each attempt was unsuccessful.
“The victim then discovered that an amount totalling RM31,700 was missing from her savings,” he said.
The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
