Lonely Women Conned Thousands of Dollars

Lonely women pay thousands in exchange for friendship

BATU PAHAT: Syndicates are targeting lonely women and conning them into paying thousands of ringgit in exchange for promises of friendship, marriage and even expensive gifts.

The syndicates, posing as successful businessman from the United States and European countries, have been involved in more than 100 cases nationwide involving millions of ringgit this year.

It is learnt that while 80% of their victims are women, local men have also fallen victim to these syndicates which identify their potential victims mainly via Facebook.

Sources said that in one case in Kuala Lumpur recently, a woman lost RM1mil to such a scam.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan, when contacted, said there were still such cases despite the police carrying out awareness campaigns at shopping malls and even at universities.

“I urge the people, especially women never to carry out any monetary transactions with people whom they meet online or via social networks,” he said, adding that besides women, men have also been conned by these syndicates.

Meanwhile, in Johor, at least two women in their 30s and with strong religious backgrounds have fallen victim to such scams within the last few days.

In the first case, a woman from the state religious department was conned of about RM43,000 to a man whom she met via Facebook several months ago.

Sources said that her “boyfriend” known as Rison Abdullah from New York had promised to send her some gifts totalling a few hundred thousand ringgit.

It is learnt that the woman then received a call from a man claiming to be from a courier company at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport asking for several payments totalling RM43,000 for insurance and clearance fees.

In the second case, a religious school teacher was conned of about RM2,500 when she got a call from an “Immigration department official “from KLIA asking for the money to release her boyfriend “Stev Morgan Evan” who had been detained at the airport for a passport problem.

“The woman deposited the money into the account but realised she had been conned when the ‘Immigration officer’ kept on asking for more money,” the source said adding that the teacher met her “boyfriend” several months ago via Facebook