MELAKA: Fraudsters managed to persuade five individuals to part with their savings totalling RM84,000 by simply misusing the photograph of a “Datuk Seri” millionaire to woo the victims into investing in a fictitious trust fund investment.
Melaka Commercial Crime Chief Supt E. Sundra Rajan said the five victims were a teacher, ex-civil servants and executives, aged between 30 and 45 from all over the state.
“The modus operandi employed by the scammers was to misuse photographs of well-known figures by uploading them on social media platforms to convince the victims to invest in the non-existent trust fund.
“In the Melaka cases, the picture of a Datuk Seri, who is also the husband of a celebrity, was misused by claiming the dignitary had confidence in placing his money in the trust fund,” he said in an interview on Saturday (Feb 19).
Supt Sundra said the victims were promised lucrative returns in just two days with an initial investment of RM500.
He said the scammer would then instruct the victims to deposit more money to claim their returns and in the process, the victims ended up depositing between RM10,000 to RM25,000 each.
Supt Sundra said the 36-year-old female teacher was the latest victim and she lodged a police report here on Jan 31.
He said his team was now tracking the scammers who were on a high police wanted list after 25 reports were lodged against the suspects for…
