KUANTAN, March 17 — A lab assistant lost RM58,290 after he was cheated by individuals, believed to be a ‘Macau Scam’ syndicate members.

Pahang Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Supt Mohd Wazir Mohd Yusof said the 58-year-old man had received a call on March 8 from a woman claiming to be a bank officer saying that he had obtained a loan of RM70,000 from the bank with outstanding repayment of two months.

"When the victim said he had never made any loan, the woman passed the call to a man who introduced himself as ‘Teo’. Teo then said that the victim was involved in a drug case and passed the call to another man known as ‘Inspector Farid’.

"The so-called policeman said the victim had one arrest warrant and to avoid being detained, Inspector Farid instructed him to open a new bank account with an SPNS system to secure his money as well as provide the details of the new account to him,” Mohd Wazir said when contacted here today.

He said subsequently, the victim had deposited RM58,290 in several transactions into the bank account.

"The money in the account had been transferred without the victim’s knowledge on Thursday. At that juncture, the victim realised he had been cheated and lodged a report at Raub police headquarters,” he said. — Bernama