KOTA KINABALU, Sept 5 — A 40-year-old man was today apprehended, for cheating a Road Transport Department (RTD) officer via the short messaging system (SMS) involving RM2,599 in February this year.

Sabah Commercial CID chief, Supt Saiman Kasran said the suspect, a former employee of a government agency, was caught in Kudat following a police report lodged by the victim, a 25-year-old woman on January 6.

He said, in the report, the victim alleged receiving an SMS that she had purportedly won the top prize of RM20,000 offered by Shell (M) Berhad.

On the direction of the suspect, the victim later remitted RM1,099.47 into a Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd account of the suspect as well as RM1,500 as competition fees into a Bank Simpanan Nasional account.

Dissatified with the amount, the victim was told to buy five pieces of Maxis pre-paid cards at RM60 each and SMS the pin numbers to the suspect.

However after all the transactions have been settled, the victim started feeling suspicuous and contacted the suspect by failed.

According to Saiman, initial investigations revealed the suspect was also involved in six other similar frauds in Johor Baharu, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Melaka. — Bernama