KUCHING, March 25 — State Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) head Superintendent Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah today reminded members of the public not to be too trusting with strangers from Facebook.
He gave the reminder after a 52-year old housewife from Bintulu was cheated of RM187,100 by an individual through a parcel scam.
Mustafa Kamal said the woman lodged a report with the Bintulu police yesterday after realising that the person, known to her as Michael Zhang, had cheated her of the money.
“Her story is similar to past cases reported to the police of victims being cheated through parcel scams,” he said.
Mustafa Kamal said the housewife became acquainted with the man while surfing Facebook on March 3.
“Throughout their conversations since they came to know each other, the man had always wanted to send her an unknown gift,” he said.
He said on March 14, the housewife received a WhatsApp message that the parcel had arrived from Los Angeles but was detained by the Malaysian Customs Department.
“The suspect wrote if she wanted to get the parcel, she needed to pay a certain amount of money to the Customs Department to obtain an anti-terrorism certificate for the release of any parcel arrived from overseas,” he said.
He said the suspect told her the money was also to be used to pay stamp duty and safety of the parcel.
“She only realised she had been conned after paying all the money into the bank account of the suspect,” Mustafa Kamal said.
Mustafa Kamal said the state CCID is investigating the report lodged by the housewife.
