SIBU: A university student was fleeced of RM11,200 in a Macau Scam here.
Acting Sibu OCPD Supt Dr Collin Babat said on March 26, the victim, 26, received a call from a man who introduced himself as a tax operations officer from the Cyberjaya headquarters.
He said the suspect told the complainant that a company "HRC Global Sdn Bhd” was registered under his name, which had tax arrears around RM36,600.
"The complainant who denied owning any company was then connected to a 'police' officer with the rank of sergeant who advised him to lodge a police report and deal with the tax evasion," he said.
Supt Collin said the student was then contacted by “Mr Hadi” from "Bank Negara" who asked him to transfer all his savings to one of his bank accounts for the purpose of protecting his money from being frozen by the authorities.
The frightened victim then made two transfers from his Bank Islam account amounting to RM11,200.
"The complainant also gave his bank details apart from sharing the account password to the suspect and was instructed to wait for a call from the police for further action.”
When the complainant contacted Bank Islam's customer service centre, he was informed by the bank that his money of RM11,200 had been transferred to another account.
In a separate case, a 24 -year-old female shop assistant suffered a loss of RM7,500 after being deceived by a woman who pretended to be a senior officer from the Inland Revenue Board.
She was told that she had tax arrears amounting to RM38,800.
"Fearing that her name would be blacklisted, the complainant followed the suspect's instructions to transfer a sum of RM7,500 to a bank account for the purpose of ensuring that the money was not from money laundering," he said.
However, the victim realised that she had been deceived after the suspect failed to explain the status of her case. The suspect also gave various reasons about the procedure of the case.
Both cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.