MIRI: A man here lost more than RM11,000 after being deceived into investing in a non-existent fund.
Miri district police chief ACP Lim Meng Seah said the man, who lodged a report on Thursday (Nov 26), claimed that he was befriended by a guy named ‘Zi Qing’ on Facebook.
This ‘Zi Qing’ had offered him to invest in a fund that would return a profit of 30 percent within one month.
“They met at a hotel in the city centre on Nov 4 around 7pm, whereby the victim was promised 30 per cent profit if he invested money with ‘Masegold United’ investment company,” said ACP Lim.
On the same day at about 8.34pm, the victim received a message from a man who introduced himself as ‘Peter’ from ‘Masegold United Company’.
Excited with the profit he was about to gain from the investment, the victim had transferred RM500 to a bank account given by ‘Peter’ during their conversation.
“Peter had told him that the total investment amount was RM4,000, because the company helped him pay the remaining balance, so he would only need to pay RM500.”
However, on Nov 22, the victim decided to close the investment account because he was not interested anymore, but was told by ‘Peter’ that he needed to pay some money before the company could return his investment.
“Two days later (Nov 24) the victim was told that his money was withheld by the government, and in order for the money to be released, he needed to transfer money into two separate accounts.”
The victim realised he had been duped after his last transaction on Nov 25, which was cash amounting to RM6,720.
The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
