Double whammy: Man loses over RM450,000 after falling victim to consecutive scams
At a press conference on Tuesday (April 19), MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said the victim, known as Liau, 55, was originally scammed of his savings after joining a so-called investment scam on April 10.
Liau said that he found the group on social media and was offered investments in initial public offerings (IPO) based in Hong Kong.
He invested a total of RM390,000 into the supposed investment but realised he had been duped after the scammers forced him to purchase more IPO shares.
Desperate to recoup his money, Liau then searched social media again and stumbled upon an advertisement touting legal services and contacted the so-called lawyer on July 8.
"The lawyer told me that my case was forwarded to the Hong Kong Anti Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) and said a result will be given in four hours.
"I was then told that my money had been transferred into an online casino website," he said.
Liau was then contacted by another scammer claiming to be from the ADCC and was told that he could "win" his money back if he used the online gambling website.
He was also instructed to send money to the scammer to start the process.
"I was then told that I had abused the system and I needed an additional RM28,000 to continue the process," he said.
In total, he lost an additional RM61,500 to the second scammer.
Chong said that this was not the first time scammers had impersonated lawyers to dupe victims, with a previous press conference having been held on a similar matter.
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