Widow loses more than half a million ringgit in love scam



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JOHOR BARU: A 58-year-old widow said goodbye with more than RM508,000 to her “Australian lover” after being the victim of a love scam.

The woman met the scammer, who is believed to be 40 years old, via Facebook in October last year, said the head of Johor’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department, Asst Comm Mohd Salleh Abdullah.

“The suspect told the victim that he was facing financial difficulties with his oil and gas company and asked for help.

“The unemployed victim fell in love with his sweet words and sold her house, jewelry and used her late husband’s savings to help him,” she said in a statement on Sunday (August 30).

He managed to convince her to make the first money transfer in November last year and she made a total of 48 transactions as of August 28, for an amount of RM508,600, he added.

“When she tried to make plans to meet with the suspect, he made all kinds of excuses and they couldn’t contact more.

“It was then that she realized that she had been misled,” she said, adding that she made the police report on August 29.

ACP Salleh said this is the second such case reported this week involving a large sum of money.

“Although we have highlighted the cases of love scams in the media, there are still people who continue to be victims of these scams.

“We want to alert the public to this trend and remind them not to give money to strangers,” he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.



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