PETALING JAYA: An IT executive lost RM200,000 to bogus bank officials and police personnel of a Macau scam.
“My husband had only just been retrenched and that money in the bank account was his severance payout.
“It’s just heartbreaking to see that I could be preyed upon so easily by this syndicate,” said the victim, in her 40s, who wished to be identified as Ling.
The amount was lost in a short time last Friday (May 13).
She first received an automated call claiming to be from HSBC bank at about 9.45am to inform her that she had a pending credit card transaction of more than RM4,000.
“I was concerned and curious, so I pressed the customer service button and was linked to one Justin Kok from the bank’s Ampang office,” she said.
The person told Ling she had a new credit card applied in Klang on April 20, and two transactions had been made on the card for RM5,468 on May 1 and RM5,860 the next day, to purchase cryptocurrency.
“He said the latest transaction pending was for RM4,663.
“I denied applying for the card and he asked me to make a report with Bank Negara,” Ling related in an interview.
Kok transferred the line to a woman who then connected her to a “policeman” addressed as Tuan Hong.
“Tuan Hong told me that the magnetic strip on one of my credit cards was compromised and needed to be reset immediately.
“He then gave me a new set of username and password to try logging into my…
