A 54-year-old university academic from Kuala Terengganu became the latest victim of cybercriminals, falling prey to two distinct online scams within days of each other, resulting in combined losses exceeding RM170,000.
According to New Straits Times, district police chief Assistant Commissioner Azli Mohd Noor revealed that the educator lost RM162,170 through a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme and an additional RM10,000 in a romance-parcel scam.
The crypto fraud began when the victim connected with a Hong Kong-based woman through social media on July 15. She persuaded him to invest in digital currency through the ‘cryptoproe’ platform after several days of conversation.
Between July 19 and 25, the academic transferred funds from his Luno wallet to the fake investment platform across five separate transactions. His suspicions arose only when withdrawal attempts failed, with scammers demanding additional investments instead.
The second scam involved another woman named Elizabeth, whom he met on the same social platform on July 27. After developing an online romantic connection, she requested his home address to send a gift package.
Fraudsters posing as courier representatives then contacted the victim, demanding RM4,000 for delivery charges and claiming customs officials discovered cash in the parcel. Additional fees of RM8,500 were requested to resolve the customs issue.
The victim managed to pay RM6,000 before his bank’s anti-fraud system flagged the recipient account during his attempt to transfer the remaining RM2,500 at an ATM.
Both incidents involved the academic’s personal savings, with police reports filed yesterday evening and afternoon respectively. Investigations proceed under Section 420 of the Penal Code for fraud offenses.