JOHOR BARU: A 73-year-old man's plan for a comfortable retirement was shattered after he lost more than half a million ringgit in savings to a fake investment syndicate.
The victim befriended a man via WhatsApp on June 26 who offered him an investment opportunity with lucrative returns.
Enticed by the offer of the man, who identified himself as "Tan Teng Boo", the victim agreed to join the investment and made online money transfers as instructed.
Johor Baru (North) police chief Assistant Commission Balveer Singh said the victim transferred RM655,109.80 in nine online cash transfers to five bank accounts provided by the suspect, between Jul 2 and 30.
"When he attempted to make withdrawals on the investments via the given platform - https://www.arohiltd.com/mobile/en-us/m.html#/signIn?redirect=%2F, he was locked out of the website.
"He immediately contacted Tan, who he had never met in person. Tan informed him that the account had been blocked.
"The victim realised he had been cheated when Tan sought additional cash transfers to unlock the account," Balveer said in a statement today.
He added that investigations revealed that the investment was a scam aimed at cheating gullible investors out of their savings.
The case is investigated under Section 420 of the Penal code for cheating.
He added investigations to establish the mobile phone registered owner, and bank accounts holders, believed to be mule accounts, are underway.
"Stern actions will be taken against the bank account holders involved in the scam," he said.
Balveer urged the public to be vigilant against current commercial crime trends to avoid falling victim to scams.
He also advised the public against easily trusting online investments or job offers that promise high returns or seem too good to be true.
"The public is encouraged to use online services provided by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), namely Semak Mule, to check on : suspicious bank accounts or call the CCID Scam Response Centre at 03-26101559 or 03-26101599, when in doubt."