Most people have thankfully wised up to the way scammers operate. Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who still fall victim to them. Whatever the reason, it’s unfortunate for those who do.
These particular scammers really struck gold with this victim. They somehow tricked a Chinese billionaire by posing as officials and scammed him out of RM21 million in five months!
According to China Press, the victim is from Penang and is the founder of a domestic energy company. He supposedly has a net worth of over 100 million. Police who have confirmed the case added that the victim is 63 years old and retired.
The scam began in November last year when a scammer called the victim, claiming to be an official from the bank. They reportedly told the victim that his credit card which was registered with the bank was suspected of being involved in illegal activities. The victim denied it, of course. However, the scammer did not give up. They forwarded the call to another ‘official’, this time claiming to be from the National Bank (Bank Negara).
That was not the only time the victim was contacted. They called him again in January 2022, stating that they needed his bank Transaction Activation Code (TAC) for the investigation. As he still thought it was a ‘official’ business, he shared his TAC with them. However, the jig ended in April when the victim checked his bank accounts.
Apparently, two of his accounts had been frozen by the bank. When he investigated further, he realised money had been transferred out of the two accounts to other unknown accounts. This had reportedly taken place from the end of 2021 and lasted till April 2022. It’s estimated that he lost about RM21 million in total. He later reported the issue to the police.
Ironically, a source told China Press that the victim had actually been warned. The victim had supposedly shared his circumstance with a bank staff, who advised the victim to be careful. The staff suspected he was being tricked with the ‘Macau scam’. However, the man told the staff off, as he didn’t believe it. “Who said I’m being deceived?” he reportedly said. “You are (the one deceived)!”
Police are currently investigating the matter under Section 420 of the Penal Code. However, this is apparently the largest fraudulent case targeted at a single person so far.
Be wary when receiving calls from unknown numbers and be careful of who you give your personal details to! After all, no matter how wise we’d like to think we are, we are still prone to falling for trickery.
Source: China Press
