From one scam to another: Victims fall into endless cycle of cons

New Straits Times

3 days ago

KUALA LUMPUR: Scam victims are at risk of receiving a double or even a triple blow as more scammers are relentlessly trying to defraud them further in moments of weakness and anxiety.
In a recent incident, a man claimed that he was cheated in an overseas investment scam and later taken for a ride by other scammers posing as a lawyer and foreign law enforcement personnel, who said they could help him get his money back.
The victim, who wished to be identified only as Liau, said he was first caught in the alleged investment scam on a social media platform while seeking to acquire funds to open a small business after retirement. He lost about RM390,000 after making seven transactions on the platform.
In a desperate attempt to get his money back, he came across a social media advertisement for a law firm that claimed to be "experts in retrieving money from investment scams".
That was when he fell deeper into the spiral of deception.
"As I have lost my money in what was supposed to be an initial public offering investment in Hong Kong, I approached the law firm to try to get my funds back.
"The lawyer claimed to be a Chinese national, but is currently based in Hong Kong," Liau said during a press conference today at Wisma MCA.
After he informed the lawyer about his case and provided his information and documents, the lawyer said he would forward the case to the Hong Kong police's Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC)..
"After around three hours, the lawyer told me that my money had been transferred into an online casino in Macau," he said.
Liau said the lawyer then introduced him to a man named Allen, who claimed to be from the ADCC.
Allen told Liau that the only way to get his money back was to gamble in the online casino and win it back through a "bug in the system".
Believing in Allen's advice, Liau then transferred RM500 onto the platform and started gambling.
He was subsequently told that he had only five days to recover his money, which prompted him to up his ante and make more than seven transactions into Malaysian bank accounts.
Liau claimed that he lost a further RM61,500 in the casino scam, bringing his total losses from both scams to more than RM451,500.
He lodged two reports in Wangsa Maju after losing all his retirement funds and money borrowed from his family.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong warned that this was not the first time scammers had impersonated lawyers or law enforcement personnel.
"We received another similar case earlier this year. A 60-year-old woman lost around RM1 million from a similar incident."
The lawyer who was impersonated had filed a report after finding out that his identity was used to commit scams, he said.
Chong advised the public to be vigilant when looking to make foreign investments, as they were now a "hunting ground" for scammers.
MCA Publicity Bureau chairman and lawyer Chan Quin Er said the public needed to be careful when dealing with anyone who claimed to be from a law firm.
"The public should verify the identities of individuals from official sources, such as the Malaysian Bar instead of blindly trusting the scammers.