PETALING JAYA: An IT executive lost RM200,000 to bogus bank officials and police personnel of a Macau scam.

       "My husband had only just been retrenched and that money in the bank account was his severance payout.

       "It's just heartbreaking to see that I could be preyed upon so easily by this syndicate," said the victim, in her 40s, who wished to be identified as Ling.

       The amount was lost in a short time last Friday (May 13).

       She first received an automated call claiming to be from HSBC bank at about 9.45am to inform her that she had a pending credit card transaction of more than RM4,000.

       "I was concerned and curious, so I pressed the customer service button and was linked to one Justin Kok from the bank's Ampang office," she said.

       The person told Ling she had a new credit card applied in Klang on April 20, and two transactions had been made on the card for RM5,468 on May 1 and RM5,860 the next day, to purchase cryptocurrency.

       "He said the latest transaction pending was for RM4,663.

       "I denied applying for the card and he asked me to make a report with Bank Negara," Ling related in an interview.

       Kok transferred the line to a woman who then connected her to a "policeman" addressed as Tuan Hong.

       "Tuan Hong told me that the magnetic strip on one of my credit cards was compromised and needed to be reset immediately.

       "He then gave me a new set of username and password to try logging into my HSBC app after 24 hours. But in order to do so I was to provide my current username and password for the HSBC app.

       "Once I provided my username and password he asked me to unlink my device from the app," said Ling.

       Tuan Hong further claimed that from the system he could see there was another account trying to move about RM300,000 from her account, saying that it could be for money laundering.

       He advised her to not read and just delete all incoming messages from the bank and also to ignore any calls claiming to be from the bank.

       Ling said Tuan Hong also told her that two court officers were holding RM200,000 from her account for insurance coverage.

       Following that a "Bank Negara official" contacted her and she was then linked to one Inspector Wong.

       "In broken English he told me he would meet me at the nearest HSBC branch at 1pm to perform a financial inspection," she said.

       Ling said it was only then that she became suspicious and called him to request for his police identification card.

       "He told me that I could verify with Bukit Aman and also claimed that he could no longer meet me at the bank as he was stuck in Jalan Kuching (KL).

       "He then asked me to make three RM100,000 transactions to three other police inspectors," she said.

       "At this point I realised I was on the line with a scammer!"

       She quickly hung up and checked her phone but it was too late, 11 transactions amounting to RM200,000 had been made from her account.

       "They really preyed on my fear and I feel that they used my previous experience of having unauthorised transactions on my account to their advantage," she said.

       She has lodged a report at the Puchong Jaya police station.

       Ling said she hoped the bank would come up with more security measures to prevent such large transactions from occurring in such a short time frame.

       "I also hope that my story will help raise awareness of such scams and prevent more people from becoming victims," she said.