Sabahan woman loses RM100,000 to loan scheme scam on Facebook
AVILA GERALDINE
New Straits Times4 October 2017
KOTA KINABALU: A woman became RM103,000 poorer when she was duped into applying for a RM1 million loan via a non-existent scheme advertised on Facebook.
The 38-year-old accountant, initially wanted to take a RM50,000 loan and paid RM648 as a processing fee to the loan company on Sept 15.
District police chief Assistant Commissioner M. Chandra said syndicates of such schemes often used social media to lure victims, offering them easy loans with lowest interest.
“All victims need to do is just provide details of their identity card, bank account, and Employees Provident Fund statement. The modus operandi is to convince the borrowers that their application has been approved before advising them to pay a processing fee in order to process the loan.
“That’s the catch. The accountant was duped into believing that her application was approved and because she trusted the company, she somehow applied for more, up to RM1 million.
“She paid RM103,000 over 12 transactions as processing fees. She paid the supposed fees in a day before realising she has fallen prey to a scam,” he told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.
Chandra noted cases of people being conned via non-existent loan schemes as well as the Macau scam in the state capital is on the rise.
Cases for non-existent loan scams have increased by twofold, where the district police recorded 44 cases involving RM359,842.78 losses as of Aug this year compared to 22 cases with RM150,180 losses last year.
Since last year, Chandra said police arrested seven people, four of whom were charged in court.
As for the Macau scam, he said, saw 11 people lodging police reports with some RM728,904 losses reported as of Aug this year compared to three cases with RM21,000 losses last year.
These two scams are among the three popular scamming methods with the third being dubbed as the African fraud, which involved victims being courted before they are scammed.
Despite numerous police advice and warnings, he said professional and educated individuals were still falling prey to telephone and online scams.
“In the Macau scam, a majority of the victims are local Chinese, aged between 25 and 64. They – the eight men and six women – are educated.
“The latest report we received (with regards to Macau scam) involved a 64-year-old woman, who lost RM280,000 in June 22,” he said.
In the incident, Chandra said the woman received a phone call, alerting the victim that her credit card had been used to purchase RM4,000 worth of diamond jewellery.
As per the modus operandi, the caller provided a bogus bank contact number for the woman to verify the alleged misused of credit card.
“The phony bank officer will verify the claim and provide another number of a supposedly Bank Negara officer, who will then advise victims to transfer their money to other accounts provided by the officer.
“In the latest case, the 64-year-old woman transferred RM280,000 to six accounts within two days before lodging a police report after realising she was duped,” he said.
Chandra advised the people not to resort to illegal money loan scheme and to personally contact their bank or inform family members if they suspect something is amiss whenever they receive unknown caller.
