SIBU: A clerk lost a whopping RM850,901.40 after she was duped by a non-existent second-hand car sale advertisement.
Sibu district police chief ACP Zulkipli Suhaili in a statement, said the victim in her 50s, came across the advertisement on the Castello Motor Trading PTD LTE Singapore Facebook page that offered to sell second-hand cars from Singapore.
He added that the victim was interested in purchasing a 2019 Lexus RX300, which was advertised at a price of RM37,500 with an installment repayment for a five-year period.
“The victim then contacted the fraudster via WhatsApp and had been dealing with the suspect since mid-July this year.
“From July 14 until Aug 18 this year, the victim made 170 transactions to 14 bank accounts involving a total sum of RM850,901.40 for various payments such as Road Transport Department (RTD) matters, custom tax, container service and so on.
“The victim was also threatened with legal action for illegally purchasing a used car from a sales agent,” he said.
Zulkipli pointed out that the victim’s money used to purchase the non-existent car, was obtained from her savings, loans from friends and loans from licensed money lending companies.
She then lodged a police report for further action on Tuesday (Nov 15).
In this regard, he advised the public to be cautious before making any decision to purchase vehicles online.
He said it was always better to do a survey to check the current prices of the car in the market or go directly to the selling company to view the car before purchasing.
“Do not easily believe any car sales advertisements with too good to be true offers as there are a lot of non-existent car sales advertisement on social media,” he said.
For queries, the public can contact the CCID Scam Response Centre at 03-26101559 or 03-26101599 or follow Facebook pages of @CyberCrimeAlertRMP and @JSJKPDRM.
They can also verify any suspicious bank accounts and phone numbers via http://ccid.mp.gov.my/semakmule/
