KUANTAN: A 28-year-old female teacher lost RM131,797 not once, but twice to Facebook scammers within the space of two months.
The victim from here first lost RM109,817 to a bogus online investment scheme before being duped some RM20,980 by a non-existent loan when she attempted to borrow RM20,000 earlier this month.
The drama unfolded on July 26 when the victim was keen to join an online cryptocurrency investment scheme advertised on Facebook, which promised high returns.
Pahang police chief Datuk Seri Yahaya Othman said the victim was provided with a link and instructed to download an application known as "rednotes".
"She invested RM550 and immediately received RM400 profit. The victim assumed the scheme was genuine and made 22 transactions amounting RM109,817 into 11 separate bank accounts.
"The victim was instructed to pay RM20,000 to be eligible to claim USD22,000 (RM95,914) from the scheme. The victim landed herself in more trouble when she planned to borrow RM20,000 loan through Facebook.
"The victim spotted the loan advertisement between Sept 5 and Sept 7 and wanted to borrow RM20,000, but was told to pay the processing fees. The victim ended up making 10 transactions amounting some RM20,900 into five separate accounts," he said in a statement today.
Yahaya said the victim, who had used her own savings and borrowed from family members and friends, lost a total of RM131,797 and lodged a police report yesterday.
He advised the public to be careful with fraudsters on social media especially non-existent loan syndicates and only borrow from licensed money lenders. The public are urged to always check on https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my before making any online cash transactions.