A 67-year-old company manager lost RM505,576 after falling victim to a cryptocurrency investment scam promoted on Facebook.
The victim from Temerloh is believed to have been attracted by the investment advertisement on March 28 before contacting an individual known as ‘Rosnah’ via WhatsApp to obtain more information about the scheme.
Pahang Police Chief Yahaya Othman said the victim then made 61 payment transactions to several bank accounts using online banking, cash deposit machines and bank counters between March 28 and April 28.
According to him, the victim was assured that his investment had yielded a profit of RM658,646.
He also said that on April 29, the victim was informed by a manager known as ‘Puan Rahimah Omar’ that he would have to pay a service charge of RM80,000 to enable the profit to be withdrawn.
He said the victim requested that the charges be deducted directly from the investment profits, but the request was rejected and he was asked to make payment first.
On May 5, the victim then received an official notice from ‘Luno 1191’ claiming that the system was undergoing maintenance and some processes could not be carried out temporarily.
Since then, the victim has failed to contact ‘Rosnah’, ‘Rahimah’ and other members of the group involved in the scheme.
It is understood that the victim used his own savings and that of his family members before coming forward to file a police report yesterday.
The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating, which provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years, whipping and a fine if convicted.
Police also reminded the public to check bank account numbers via the official portal https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my/ before making any transactions to avoid fraud.
