JOHOR BARU, July 12 — The Johor government has discovered nine cases of a state affordable housing (RMMJ) scam involving fake letters where low income earners have been duped into parting with thousands of ringgit.
The scam, believed to be the work of a syndicate, was discovered by the state secretary’s office following a complaint lodged by the unsuspecting victim late last month.
Johor Housing and Rural Development Committee chairman Dzulkefly Ahmad said that the state secretary (housing) office has lodged a police report over the matter.
“We have been notified about this after a victim had come to the state secretary’s office to enquire on the status of his RMMJ unit,” he said today.
Dzulkefly said this in a media conference after a site visit to the Johor Risda office in Bandar Baru Uda here.
Dzulkefly said the state government’s housing unit under the state secretary found that the letter issued to the victim was fake.
“When we inspected the document with the victim, we found it is not the original one that the state government issued to those who qualify to get RMMJ homes,” he said, adding that a police report by the state government official was lodged on June 28.
Dzulkefly, who is also the Kota Iskandar assemblyman, explained that the state government issues a certificate to those eligible but the victim had a letter instead.
Elaborating on the content of the fake document, Dzulkefly said the format was different from the original certificate and the file number is of a lot of land that has been awarded to someone else.
“So far, the state government has discovered nine similar cases in relation to the RMMJ project, which is located at Setia Business Park II, near Bandar Dato Onn here,” said Dzulkefly.
Initial investigations revealed that each victim had to fork out RM5,000 as a “booking fee” for units they wanted.
Internal department probes also showed that no state civil servants were involved in the scam and was believed to be linked to outsiders.
Dzulkefly stressed that the state government has never asked for a ‘booking fee’ for RMMJ homes.
“I urge the public to be cautious and not be duped by such unscrupulous tactics.
“All information or requirements on affordable home purchase will only be informed through the official Johor government website pertaining to RMMJ,” he said adding that the state government never appointed any representatives to act as it agents for its housing programme.
Meanwhile, Johor police chief Datuk Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd said police have initiated investigations upon receiving the report late last month.
“We (police) have classified the case under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating. However, investigations are still on-going and we have yet to determine if the culprits responsible is an individual or a syndicate,” he said when contacted by Malay Mail today.
Mohd Khalil also urged other victims of the alleged scam to lodge police reports to facilitate investigations.
He said the state government can also lodge police reports pertaining to the nine cases they have detected.
