IPOH, Oct 20 — A local woman suffered losses of more than RM129,000 after being duped by a non-existent online part-time job offer.
Kampar District Police Chief Supt Mohamad Nazri Daud said that his department received a report yesterday from the 34-year-old victim.
“Initial police investigations found that the victim saw an offer for a part-time job related to hotel bookings through social media. Interested, the victim left her phone number to be contacted by the party offering the job.
“The victim received a message from an unknown individual offering the job. The victim was then added to a WhatsApp group supposedly for handling online hotel booking transactions,” he said in a statement today.
Mohamad Nazri said the victim was instructed to make payments for each hotel booking into several bank accounts provided by the suspect, who promised that the capital would be returned along with a commission ranging between 10 to 20 percent, which would increase according to the transaction amount.
He said that due to being lured by the offer and the promise of profits, the victim carried out several money transfer transactions to eight accounts provided by the suspect.
“The victim began to realise she had been cheated when the promised capital and commission were not received after the payments were made. The victim suffered a loss of RM129,975.54,” he said.
He added that the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code. — Bernama