KUCHING, Oct 4 — A final-year business student here, aged 22, has become the latest victim of a mule account scheme.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Public Complaints Bureau chief Milton Foo said the case began on Sept 20 when the student was searching for online jobs via Facebook.
She later found the job offer, after which she was contacted by an individual via WhatsApp and was offered a part-time online accounting job, with payment of RM100 a day.
“However, the task was to receive money from certain individuals through her bank account,” said Foo at a press conference held at SUPP headquarters here.
On Sept 22 and 23, a sum of RM12,246 was deposited into her bank account from five individuals, and after that, the fund was transferred to two other accounts.
Following that, a sum of RM20,117 was deposited into her e-wallet account from eight individuals, before being transferred to six different accounts as per instructed.
“However, the victim did not receive the promised pay, and that the suspect disappeared and could no longer be contacted.
“She later found out that she was being used by the suspect after noticing that her bank account had been frozen.
“Checks done by her on the Semak Mule portal showed that there were three police reports lodged on her bank account: each in Sentul, Sri Petaling and Kelana Jaya.
“She then lodged a police report on Sept 29,” said Foo.
The SUPP man stressed that this incident served as a reminder to university students and fresh graduates to not be easily deceived by job offers obtained from social media.
“A job offer asking the job-seekers to use their own bank accounts to receive and transfer money is a definite red flag,” he added. — The Borneo Post
