Woman loses over RM500,000 to scammer posing as her younger brother

ISKANDAR PUTERI: A 31-year-old woman lost more than half a million of her life savings after being duped by a scammer who had impersonated her younger brother.

Iskandar Puteri OCPD Asst Comm Rahmat Ariffin said the police received a police report from the victim at 4.20pm on Friday (Jan 19) after noticing that she had been cheated.

“The victim received a text via Whatsapp from an unknown individual who claimed to be her brother; the text requested the victim to transfer RM570,174 for business purposes.

“The victim then made the transfer to the account given by the suspect. She then called her brother to inform him about the transfer that she just made.

“However, her real brother, aged 29, denied making such a request,” he said in a statement here Saturday (Jan 20).

ACP Rahmat added that the victim, who worked as a company manager, had received the text from an unknown number and transferred the money to an unknown account.

“The Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has opened up one investigation paper regarding this case; the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.