Senior citizen duped of nearly RM600,000 by bogus NSRC officer

JOHOR BARU: A senior citizen here says she lost almost RM600,000 after falling for a phone scam by someone claiming to be a National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) officer.

Johor police chief Comm M. Kumar said the 70-year-old victim lodged a report on Monday (June 17) claiming that she lost RM584,000 of her savings.

“The victim stated that in early May, she received a call from an individual claiming to be an officer from NSRC accusing her of having a record involving a cheating case.

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“She then was contacted by another individual claiming to be a police officer from a northern state saying the victim has a bank account registered under her name in that state but she denied it,” he said in a statement on Wednesday (June 19).

Comm Kumar added that the suspect was able to convince the victim to hand over her bank account details for “investigation purposes”.

He said the victim followed the suspect’s instructions and even left her ATM card and account PIN at a location he provided.

“The victim was then instructed to transfer money from (her other) bank accounts to the account handed over to the suspect for his investigation.

“However, in the middle of this month, the victim checked with the bank and found that RM584,000 had been taken out through ATM withdrawals and transfers to an unknown person,” he added.

Comm Kumar said the victim then realised she had been cheated and lodged a report.

“I would like to remind the public that the NSRC is a call centre where it only receives calls from the public and is a one-way communications channel.

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“NSRC will not make calls to any individuals. Therefore, any caller claiming to be from the centre is a fraud,” he said.

Comm Kumar added that to optimise efforts to prevent and curb online fraud cases, victims should immediately contact NSRC at 997 to block financial transactions from their bank accounts.

He also urged the public to visit the Commercial Crime Investigation Department’s social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to find out the latest modus operandi used by scammers.