Former Finance Officer Loses RM450,000 In Investment Scam

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 (Bernama) -- A former finance officer at a private company was left devastated after losing RM450,000 in savings due to being duped by a fraudulent investment scheme advertised on social media.

The man, who only wished to be known as Ken Wong, 40, said he was drawn to the investment advertisement that promised high returns and offered guidance for profitable investments.

He said that although he had been involved in the investment world for nearly a decade, he admitted that his judgment was clouded by greed, prompting him to click on the provided link and enter the chatroom.

“Later, I was asked to make an investment through an online platform, and I successfully withdrew a dividend of about RM5,000 to convince me as an investor. The platform displayed that my investments were profitable, but I could not withdraw those profits.

“Instead, the platform urged me to invest RM1.5 million in an initial public offering (IPO) of a foreign company, and that’s when I realised I had been scammed,” he told a press conference in Puchong today.

According to him, he made 23 money transfer transactions into four different accounts belonging to various private limited companies since July before filing a police report in August after realising he had been scammed by the syndicate.

Meanwhile, the founder of the Pertubuhan Kebajikan Integriti Persahabatan Nasional (PKIPN), Joseph Prakash, urged the authorities to take firm action to address the rampant issue of fraud, including imposing restrictions on investment advertisements on social media that were often used to lure victims.

"Some of these scam victims are already retired; they have filed reports with the police and relevant agencies, providing evidence," he said, adding that his organisation had received over 10 complaints from victims caught up in the same investment scheme, involving losses exceeding RM3 million.

-- BERNAMA