JOHOR BAHRU – A woman lost more than half a million ringgit after she fell for a scammer posing as her brother on social media.
Iskandar Puteri police chief Rahmat Ariffin said the 31-year-old local woman, who is a manager of a company, lodged a police report on the scam at about 4.20pm here yesterday.
He said the scammer, who posed as the victim’s 29-year-old younger brother, had sent a message via WhatsApp instructing her to transfer a sum of RM570,174 for a business purpose.
“The phone number was (in fact) not the same as her brother’s real phone number. But not suspecting anything amiss, the victim transferred the amount to the account given by the scammer,” he said today.
He said the victim’s younger brother also later denied asking the victim for the money.
Rahmat said following that, the Commercial Crime Investigation Division of the Iskandar Puteri district police headquarters opened an investigation paper in accordance with Section 420 of the Penal Code.
He advised the public not to easily believe any message nor phone call from an unknown number and to check first. – January 20, 2024