Thursday, May 5, 2011

Woman RM1.1m poorer after falling for sob story on FB


A woman who fell for a con artist's sob stories on Facebook ended up being cheated of RM1.1mil.

The man who claimed to be a British citizen had told her he needed her account to bank in money from his contract with Petronas, which he claimed amounted to RM4.6mil.

However, he told the woman he needed her help to pay stamp duty charges and insurance fees before he could get his contract sanctioned.

The suspect claimed he could not afford the fees at the time.

“The victim paid RM1.1mil via several transactions to the man between March 29 and April 19,” said Federal Commercial Crimes director Comm Datuk Wira Syed Ismail Syed Azizan yesterday.

He added that following a police report lodged by the victim, six suspects were arrested in Kepong on Tuesday.

Police also recovered RM15,000 in cash, 18 ATM cards, seven cellphones and a laptop.



“Of the six, two were Nigerians, two were Bangladeshis while the others were locals,” he told reporters.

Comm Syed Ismail said the victim had been sympathetic when she read about the man's predicament.

“She caved in when she heard his sob stories,” he added.

Comm Syed Ismail urged people using popular social networking websites like Facebook to be very careful.

“These unscrupulous people prey on gullible girls through these websites,” he said. “Revealing your personal information on your Facebook wall' is not a good idea.”

The public, he said, had been warned several times not to respond to e-mail from seemingly rich people offering money for safekeeping, yet a lot of them still become victims.


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