KUCHING, April 20 ― Despite never meeting each other, a government officer was willing to give a woman RM60,000 over their three-year relationship, Sarawak Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) head superintendent Mustafa Kamal Gani Abdullah said today.
He said the money was meant as an advance payment for their supposed marriage.
Mustafa Kamal said the 28-year old victim lodged a report with the Sibu police yesterday after realising that the woman he knew only as “Aishah” had conned him.
“The two came to know each other through Facebook sometime in November 2017 and since then they had been in communication, from Facebook to WhatsApp,” he said.
“From that relationship, the victim proposed to the suspect to marry him and she agreed to the proposal.
“However, she asked the victim to bank in certain amount of money into her account as advance payment for the wedding,” he added.
He said the victim banked in more money up to early this month as demanded by the suspect until the total amount reached RM60,000.
Mustafa Kamal said much of the money was borrowed from a financial institution.
In an unrelated case, a 32-year old mechanic was scammed of RM32,350 by a non-existent loan syndicate.
Mustafa Kamal said the victim lodged a report with the Bintulu police yesterday.
He said the victim had wanted to borrow RM40,000 from the syndicate which had advertised its loan facilities through Facebook last month.
He said the syndicate agreed to provide him with the loan, and told him to make payment as advance settlement and payment for registration and lawyer’s fees.
Mustafa Kamal said the victim made 11 payments into the account of the syndicate from March 17 to April 13, 2019.
