Retired teacher loses RM200,000 to scammers

KUALA TERENGGANU: Scammers contacted a retired teacher on National Day telling her that she had an insurance claim of RM68,000 but the series of events following that phone call led to her losing over RM200,000.

Kuala Terengganu district police chief Asst Comm Azli Mohd Noor said that on Aug 31, the victim, a 65-year-old woman, received a phone call from a person claiming to be an employee of Ampang Medical Centre.

He said the suspect informed the victim, from Cendering here, that she had an insurance claim of RM68,800 but she denied it.

“The suspect asked the victim to make a police report on the grounds of misuse of personal information.

“However, on Sept 24, the suspect contacted the victim and instructed her to open an account at Agro Bank with a deposit of RM5,000 supposedly for the purpose of monitoring by Bank Negara Malaysia,” he said in a statement yesterday, Bernama reported.

ACP Azli said the suspect then instructed the victim to transfer RM201,900 from her haj account to the Agro Bank account.

He said the victim, who was suspicious and felt deceived, told her son about the incident, and he went to check the balance with Agro Bank on Tuesday.

“The inspection found that the victim’s balance was only RM100 and there were 20 transactions from the victim’s account to an unknown bank account.”