Factory Manager Loses RM300,000 To Love Scam
GEORGE TOWN, June 27 (Bernama) -- An analysis manager at a factory in Bayan Baru, here, lost RM300,000 after falling victim to a love scam through social media.
Penang Police deputy chief Datuk Mohd Alwi Zainal Abidin said the incident began when the 45-year-old woman became acquainted with a man claiming to be an American citizen via Facebook in November last year.
He said not long after, they started communicating via WhatsApp after the man allegedly expressed a desire to pursue a serious relationship with the victim.
'The suspect introduced himself as a businessman in the field of information technology (IT), claiming to be operating a business in a foreign country.
'After a month of getting to know one another, the suspect told the victim that his bank account had been frozen in that country and asked for her help to make payments for the delivery of important stock related to his business,' he said in a statement today.
Mohd Alwi said the suspect promised to repay the money and even offered additional payment as a token of appreciation to convince the victim.
Lured by the online romance and trusting the suspect, the woman then made 16 transactions to five different bank accounts between Dec 12 and 14, 2024.
However, the victim realised that she had been scammed when the suspect asked for more money, allegedly to cover his travel expenses to visit her in Malaysia. He also sent her a tampered photo of a passport.
Mohd Alwi said the woman lodged a police report at the Barat Daya police headquarters yesterday.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Barnama
3 hours ago
- Barnama
Besut MRSM Bullying Case: Two More Students Detained As Second Victim Cries Out
JERTIH, June 27 (Bernama) -- Two more students from the Mara Junior Science College (MRSM) in Besut, Kuala Terengganu have been detained by police in connection with an ongoing bullying case at the school. Besut police chief Supt Azamuddin Ahmad @ Abu said the two Form Three students were detained at 4 pm today after presenting themselves at the Besut district police headquarters with their families. "The arrest of the two brings the total number of detained students from the school to seven: six Form Three students and one Form Five student. "Today, five students have been remanded for three days while the two students who were just arrested this evening will be brought to the Kuala Terengganu Magistrate's Court tomorrow to obtain a remand order," he said in a statement today. He said the remand order was issued against all suspects to enable an investigation under Section 147 of the Penal Code (for rioting) to be carried out. In a related development, Azamuddin said yesterday evening his department received a report regarding another Form Two student who was also allegedly a victim in the same incident. "The victim claimed to have been bullied by the same group in the incident that occurred at 11.30 pm on Tuesday at the boarding school's hostel, resulting in pain in both right and left legs." Azamuddin said in a statement yesterday that a Form Two male student at Besut MRSM claimed he was bullied by several seniors in the hostel at 11.30 pm on Tuesday. He said that based on the report by the victim, he was ordered to crouch in a semi-squat position with slippers placed on his head for 40 minutes, punched in the stomach and slapped, causing the victim to experience pain in his stomach and right rib as well as bruises on the back of his body.
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Diddy's lawyer claims prosecutors target his private sex life in trial
SEAN 'Diddy' Combs' defense lawyer urged a jury on Friday to find the former hip-hop mogul not guilty in his sex trafficking trial, saying prosecutors are trying to criminalize his unusual sexual preferences. The lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said during his closing argument in Manhattan federal court that over the past two months prosecutors had presented a 'fake trial' to use Combs' sexual proclivities as evidence of a criminal conspiracy centered on his businesses. 'They take the baby oil and the Astroglide and make it the evidence in this case, because there's nothing wrong with his businesses,' Agnifilo said, adding that the 'crime scene' in the case was Combs' 'private sex life.' Combs, a former billionaire known for elevating hip-hop in American culture, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and two counts each of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted on all counts, the Bad Boy Records founder faces a minimum 15-year prison term and could be sentenced to life behind bars. During the first day of closing arguments on Thursday, a U.S. prosecutor told jurors Combs used 'violence and fear' to lead a criminal enterprise that helped him subject two of his former girlfriends to sex trafficking, 'The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,' prosecutor Christy Slavik told jurors in her address. 'He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.' Combs' defense lawyers acknowledge that Combs was occasionally violent in domestic relationships, but have argued that his conduct did not amount to sex trafficking because the sex acts described by prosecutors were consensual. Over more than six weeks of testimony in Manhattan federal court, jurors heard two of Combs' former girlfriends testify that they took part in days-long, drug-fueled sex parties sometimes called 'Freak Offs' with male sex workers while Combs watched, masturbated, and occasionally filmed. Combs did not testify. The jury saw hotel surveillance footage of Combs beating one of the women in a hallway, and heard Combs' employees describe setting up hotel rooms and buying drugs for the performances. Jurors are expected to start deliberations either late on Friday or on Monday. To convict Combs, they must vote unanimously.
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Jail for Singaporean man, the ‘second in command' of illegal operation of cross-border crypto transactions
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): From its premises in Geylang, a team operated an illegal business buying and selling large amounts of foreign currency and cryptocurrency. Between Feb 1 and 23, 2023, the team provided cross-border money transfer services involving Singapore and foreign currencies of at least $35 million in value over no fewer than 430 transactions. Following a police raid on the premises on Feb 23, 2023, the mastermind behind the operation, Singaporean Low Han Chuan, 44, fled the country. On June 26, Javiour Chia Kit Hou, 34, whom the prosecution described as the second in command, was sentenced to 10 months' jail. He had pleaded guilty earlier to one charge of abetment of the provision of an unlicensed payment service. Deputy public prosecutors Shamini Joseph and Kiera Yu said that at some point, before June 2021, Low was introduced to a director of Sir Money Changer, a family-run company. Low expressed an interest in starting his own money-changing and remittance business, and, after a discussion, the director agreed to let Low operate his business autonomously under Sir Money Changer's name from its premises at 12 Lorong 1 Geylang in exchange for $14,000 monthly. Low would hire his own staff and pay their salaries, and while the contributions to the staff's Central Provident Fund accounts would be paid by Sir Money Changer, Low would have to reimburse it. He was also required to record and submit the money-changing and remittance transactions performed at the Geylang premises to Sir Money Changer so that annual accounting returns could be filed together. Low began business operations on the premises in September 2021. While he used Sir Money Changer's name, he conducted his own business involving illegal cross-border money transfer services from the Geylang premises independently and without oversight from Sir Money Changer. He did not have a licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) that allowed him to carry on such a business, and he was not an exempt payment service provider. Low, who masterminded the operation and procured customers, was generally not physically present at the premises. To run his business daily, he employed Chia; Malaysian Ho Jia Yi, 26; Singaporeans Peh Kian Tat, 46, Jacky Lim Teck Leng, 27, and Ng Yang Kai Don, 24, who is his nephew; as well as an unidentified person known as Vera. Between September 2021 and February 2023, the crew operated the business of buying and selling large amounts of foreign currency and the USDT cryptocurrency. Chia, who had a monthly salary of about $3,500, led the team and executed the daily operations of the business. He would assign roles and responsibilities to the team, relay Low's instructions, procure customers for the business, execute the transfer of USDT, and supervise the recording of the transactions. When a customer engaged the team's services, a group chat would be set up on WhatsApp or Telegram to facilitate communication between the team and the customer. The team members were given work phones with a Cambodian number, which they used to communicate on the group chat. Using the chat, customers would indicate the amount they wished to remit and the currency to be sent to the receiving bank account or intended recipient. The team would then provide the buying or selling rate, and the amount that would be transferred to the recipient in the intended currency. The customer would then agree to the deal or not. After a deal was confirmed, the team would coordinate between its network of overseas and local agents to perform the remittance transaction by either transferring or receiving cash, or processing transfers to the recipients' bank accounts. Once the transaction was completed, members of the team would record the details of the transaction in a spreadsheet, including the customer alias, the date of transaction, the amount and currency involved, and the conversion rate. The prosecutors said the team did not carry out any know-your-customer or proof of funds checks or file cash movement reports despite being aware of the regulatory requirements to do so. On Feb 21, 2023, a 58-year-old woman made a police report stating that she was a victim of a police impersonation scam and had been deceived into transferring at least $200,000 to two bank accounts. Investigations revealed that $90,000 of the money was withdrawn by a 23-year-old Singaporean man who traded in cryptocurrency and was a member of a Telegram group chat along with Chia. It was found that Chia had advertised cryptocurrency services on the group chat and the 23-year-old man had reached out to him to buy USDT. The man was instructed to deliver the $90,000 in cash to the premises in Geylang, and received the USDT in his cryptocurrency wallet. As a result of this transaction, investigators discovered the operations on the premises and arrested Chia, Peh and Ho. Ng left Singapore on the same day to meet his uncle, and they both travelled to Cambodia. Ng eventually returned to Singapore some time around June 1, 2023, while Low remains at large. The prosecution asked the court to sentence Chia to between 10 and 12 months' jail. They said there was a high level of sophistication in the operation, that Chia knew a licence was required by MAS and that he had obtained personal financial gain from the offence. Chia's lawyers, Jeremy Pereira and Matin Razak of Withers KhattarWong, asked for a sentence of between seven and eight months' jail. They said their client had been given an active role by Low in managing the operations as he was the only employee with a diploma working there, and he was good with numbers. They said: 'It is clear that (Low), Javiour's employer, was the mastermind behind the entire scheme, not Javiour. 'Although Javiour oversaw the daily operations of the business, he acted purely on (Low)'s instructions.' Chia could have been fined up to S$125,000, jailed for up to three years, or both. - The Straits Times/ANN
