Meet on Facebook, doctor loses RM94,000 to ‘love scam’
PETALING JAYA: A doctor lost RM94,000 after being duped by a ‘Love Scam’ syndicate through an introduction to a local man through Facebook, last month.
The acquaintance with the man who worked abroad then became closer until they exchanged phone numbers.
Petaling Jaya District Police Chief, Assistant Commissioner Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid said, throughout their introduction, the 31-year-old medical officer informed that he had never met the suspect who used the international phone number.
“After two weeks of getting to know each other, the suspect asked the victim to make an online transaction to purchase goods through a website.
“The victim who was at home at the time clicked on the website link and filled in the information provided by the suspect, namely identification data and password,” she said in a statement here on Saturday.
Mohamad Fakhrudin added that the victim used her personal account to make a number of purchase transactions amounting to US$18,640 and US$33,990.
She said, as a result of the transaction, the victim’s account was frozen without knowing the reason.
“The victim is asked to make a deposit payment to enable her account to be reactivated,” she added.
According to her, the victim has made deposit payments several times into a local account amounting to RM23,701.
However, she said, the victim was informed that the amount was not enough and needed to add more money.
“The victim was instructed to use the Huobi application for the purpose of converting Malaysian ringgit currency to United States (US) dollars.
“The victim who still believed the instructions had deposited money into four more different bank accounts through the same application.
“The victim first realized she was being cheated when the suspect asked the victim to deposit money to the suspect’s friend, but the victim did not do so,” she added.
Accordingly, she advised the public to be careful in every online introduction and not to be deceived by the sweet promises of virtual friends.