KUCHING: A local woman avoided further financial losses after being lured into a love scam.
She had lost RM4,180 of her savings after she was blinded by love to seek help to rescue her detained ‘boyfriend’ at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
Yesterday (Mar 4), the woman approached the Democratic Action Party (DAP) Bandar Kuching Parliamentary Service Centre for assistance to free her ‘boyfriend’ from detention by the Customs Department.
George Lam Li Kang, special assistant to Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii, said the victim claimed that the suspect, supposedly from the United States (US), told her that he was detained for carrying an excessive amount of cash.
“The alleged Customs officer had demanded a RM6,000 bail as her ‘boyfriend’ was bringing an excessive amount of cash from the US to Malaysia.
“Suspecting foul play, I requested for the travelling details of her supposed boyfriend and she provided a photo of a Malaysia Airlines flight ticket (MH0752) from Los Angeles to Kuala Lumpur, which was obviously doctored.
“Firstly, there is no direct flight between the US and Malaysia. Secondly, MH0752 is a Kuala Lumpur-Hanoi flight, not the one indicated in the photo. This is clearly a scam,” he said in a statement.
Further questioning revealed the victim and her ‘boyfriend’ had been in a relationship since October last year. They met through Facebook and continued their interaction through WhatsApp.
The scam victim said she had conducted five online transactions, totalling RM4,180, to various bank accounts at different times.
“The ‘boyfriend’ claimed to have transferred gift money to her account, but it was frozen by ‘International Police’.
“He insisted that she transfer money to him to ‘unfreeze’ the funds meant to be credited into her account.
“I told her that this is clearly a scam. Initially, she found it very hard to accept the truth, but I convinced her to lodge a police report,” he said.
The woman lodged a police report at Sekama police station at 11 am, followed by the next procedure to initiate investigation at the Sungai Maong police station at 12.30 pm.
