JOHOR BARU: A 35-year-old medical officer was duped after receiving a phone call from a fake courier service and lost about RM84,812 from her bank account after sharing her personal details.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shahurinain Jais said the scammers had called the victim and informed her about finding a parcel heading to Shanghai, China that contained her ATM cards, claiming that the cards had been used in a money laundering activities.

“The incident had allegedly occurred between Oct 17 and 26. After receiving a phone call from the fake courier service, the victim then received another call from the scammers, pretending to be police officers from China.

"The scammers had used an a foreign phone number and had sent an internet link for the victim to fill in her credentials for ‘investigations purposes’, ” he said in a statement here on Monday (Oct 28).

He added that the victim then received an SMS notification from the bank informing her about two transactions to a local bank account.

ACP Shahurinain said that there were 19 transactions conducted from her account amounting to RM84,812 and added that the scammers had also ordered her to deposit RM50,000 as bail for her after failing to attend court hearings in the country.

“The victim only realised she had been duped after sharing her problems with her husband, ” he added.

ACP Shahurinain added that this is one of the six police reports that they have received regarding phone scam activities since March with losses amounting to RM550,000.

“The syndicate had also manage to duped five other women aged between 34 to 59-year-old. The syndicate has been active in October and targets women," he said.

ACP Shahurinain added that the syndicate poses as a courier service which would inform their victims about a parcel that had been detained by authorities.

"The same scammers would then pretend to be the authorities and ask for the victim’s bank credentials before transferring their money, ” he explained.

He said that the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code

ACP Shahurinain said that the public should always remain vigilant especially when receiving phone calls from unknown numbers and check whether the phone numbers have been registered as scammers at www.ccid.rmp.gov.my/semakmule.