KUANTAN: A government pensioner's dream to double his retirement savings went up in smoke after he fell victim to a "get rich" investment scheme.
The 61-year-old ex-firefighter was conned into believing that he just needed to invest RM2,000 to earn a profit of up to six figures, and the victim decided to utilise RM127,000 from his savings.
Pahang police chief Datuk Seri Yahaya Othman said the victim from Kuantan had received a Tik Tok notification advertising "Pelaburan Wang Ajaib" on March 13.
"He was lured by the advertisement which offered a huge profit up to RM800,000 by only investing RM2,000. The victim began to show interest when the suspect informed him that he only needs to invest and relax without doing any tasks while the profit will be credited into his account.
"The victim was influenced by the promises and transferred his hard earned savings amounting RM127,000 into four different bank accounts. He lodged a police report yesterday after failing to receive any returns as promised," he said.
In a separate case, a 41-year-old teacher from Bentong took a bank loan to invest in an online scheme before losing RM116,000.
Yahaya said the victim had befriended the suspect on popular online dating app Tinder on March 11 and was coaxed into registering to participate in the scheme through "AZRB' platform.
"She was promised huge returns and the victim made 11 transactions into four unknown bank accounts. She used her own savings and cash obtained from a personal loan.
"After some time, the victim realised she could not access her accounts on the AZRB platform. When she informed her agent, the victim was informed that she was not a registered member and was instead told to make further payments," he said, adding that the victim then realised she had been cheated and lodged a police report yesterday.
He said both cases were being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code and reminded the public to conduct checks at https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my before carrying out any transaction.
