An elderly woman in Penang was deceived by the promises of a conman who said he would take care of her in her old age. Unfortunately, he was part of a Love Scam syndicate and she lost a total of RM3.9 million to him.
Based on a report by Astro Awani, the 63-year-old woman had met the scammer, who claimed to be a South Korean man working on an oil rig, on Instagram last December (2021) and had been getting to know him for the past 4 months.
The victim has never met the man in person and had only communicated with him via WhatsApp and Instagram.
According to the Penang Police Chief, Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain, the victim then proceeded to form a love affair with the conman before putting two and two together after she became suspicious of the photo he sent her.
She made a police report on 17 March upon realising the man was a scammer.
Though, by that point, she had already made 184 transactions into 19 local bank accounts using her late husband’s savings that she had inherited.
“We found the lowest transfer was RM9,000 and the highest was RM50,000.”
“I believe the criminal was aware of the bank’s threshold rate (withdrawal limit) in which they withdrew in small amounts, however, the victim finally caught on when surfing the internet and finding the pictures (given by the suspect) to be quite suspicious. But, the amount of RM3.9 million is gone,” Shuhaily explained.
The picture given to the elderly woman was a stock photo of an oil rig worker with the face of a Korean man photoshopped onto it.
“This is the picture used, a picture of a young man, single, handsome and has a stable career but when we checked, the picture is an edited picture. It may be from another picture,” he added.
He has since urged the public to be more careful of promises made by unknown individuals met online, adding that scammers target victims regardless of age and background factors.
We genuinely hope that everyone stays wary of random people we meet online, especially when they ask for money!
Have a similar experience? Do feel free to share in the comment section.
Also read: BEWARE: Scammers Are Calling Victims From “PDRM Station” Phone Numbers To Deceive Them!
