JOHOR BARU: Two people lost RM394,000 in a day to separate cases of the contraband parcel scam.
The first victim, a 32-year-old self-employed man, said he received a call claiming to be from a delivery company telling him that his parcel had been flagged by police as containing illegal items.
The call was then transferred to a bogus policeman who convinced him to make online cash transfers to avoid legal action and the freezing of his bank account.
The victim made 15 transfers to eight accounts, totalling RM234,000.
The second victim, a 30-year-old public servant, lost RM160,000 to the same scam modus operandi.
Both victims realised they had been duped when they could not contact the person claiming to be a police officer and after noticing that there were no issues with their bank accounts.
Johor police chief Commissioner M. Kumar said this year, police had received 148 reports on phone scams, involving RM5,881,067.08 in losses.
He said the scammers' modus operandi was to tell their targets that contraband had been detected in their parcels, then transfer the call to a fake police officer.
"The bogus policeman will convince the victims that their bank accounts will be frozen during investigation. The scammer will advise them to transfer funds to mule bank accounts for safekeeping."
He said police did not have the authority to freeze bank accounts as that power lied with Bank Negara Malaysia.
He advised the public to make checks with banks by making direct calls, instead of trusting call transfers.
"When in doubt, stop. Always make checks on platforms like Semak Mule and the Whoscall application before making online payments or transfers."
