New Species for Local Scam

No doubt, I have shared with you quite a number of scam cases. We have heard of the Nigerian 419 scam, the AL-Globo lottery scam, but the Bukit Aman scam must surely be the mother of all scams.

A syndicate posing as police officers from Bukit Aman has been ripping off unsuspecting victims of hundreds of thousands of ringgit by claiming that they are being investigated for alleged money laundering. Their latest victim is an elderly woman who lost about RM260,000.

Relating the ordeal, the woman who only wanted to be known as Margeret, in her 60s, said she received a phone call on Aug 18 from a man claiming to be a police inspector from Bukit Aman. She said the “officer” told her that she was being investigated by the Hong Kong police over dealings with two drug dealers there. “The officer told me that if I did not cooperate fully with police investigations, I would be extradited to Hong Kong to face charges for the offence,” she told The Star yesterday.

Margeret said the officer then passed to her the number of a senior police investigator in Hong Kong to verify the matter. “I called the number given and a man claiming to be a police officer warned me that I was being investigated together with 28 other people for alleged dealings with drug dealers there,” she said, adding that the man told her to cooperate fully with the police here.

She said she then received another call from a senior police inspector in Bukit Aman who asked her to transfer all her money into an account provided by them. “They said this was to help them verify that the funds were not linked to drug dealers in Hong Kong,” she said, adding that she transferred a total of RM260,000 from five separate banks to the police here.

Margeret said the officer told her to transfer any additional funds she had to facilitate police investigations failing which she would be arrested. “I told them that I had an additional RM128,000 in a fixed deposit account in Temerloh, but I could not withdraw the money until the next day.”

Fearing something was amiss, she lodged a police report and the news came out.

From the passage, it sounds that Margeret is stupid and too ridiculous to just bank in her money to other people's account. Well, scam is catching human behavior, being greedy and scared. Perhaps the success rate is 1 out of 100 or 1,000, depends on the awareness or attitude. But still, the cost for them to try is very low. That's why this kind of scam is still exist. 

I don't want to laugh her, because I'm also very greedy and fallen in the trap of Forex scam twice before. But the amount of money I loss is very small compared to Margeret. Again, I hope this kind of post sharing can create awareness and make us away from scam.

Selamat Hari Raya to all Muslims and happy National Day, folks!