There are scammers, and then there are scammers that try to pass off as the Royal Malaysian Police.
In the recent week or so, scores of netizens have taken to their Facebook profiles to warn their friends and families about some fake police scam calls that they’ve been receiving. From what we understand, the scammer would ring up a person and claim that he/she has been implicated in a road accident. After which, the scammer would instruct the victim/receiver to transfer money into a bank account to “settle” the case.
And we get why it seems legit.
As seen in the screenshot above, the scammers have even gotten the “Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Putrajaya” (Putrajaya District Police Headquarters) caller ID down pat, by masking their original numbers. But the dead giveaway, it seems, is a heavily accented Chinese person attempting to speak in Bahasa Malaysia. Meanwhile, other netizens who received the same call/calls said that all they heard was a strange beep on the other end of the line.
Apparently, the calls are nothing new per se.
Early last month, Malay daily Berita Harian wrote that Putrajaya Police Chief Assistant Commissioner Rosly Hasan has received queries about the validity of the calls. While they have yet to track down the syndicate, he has since issued a statement asking the public to be wary of receiving calls from the Putrajaya District Police Headquarters caller ID.
Note: The easiest way to tell that it’s a scam is by checking the number in the calls log and comparing it with the registered phone number that can be easily found via Google. For example, in this case, the scammers’ number is +600388862222 (as seen in the screenshot above) while the Putrajaya District Police Headquarters number is+60388862222.
