BOGUS POLICE CALLS! KUALA LUMPUR: Police advised the public to be cautious if they receive any phone calls from callers that identify themselves as policemen who had arrested their family members over drug offences. Subang Jaya district police chief Assistant Commissioner Yahaya Ramli said if the public received such calls, the first thing they should do was to verify the information with the nearest police stations or to contact the family members who was ‘arrested’. “Public are advised not to panic, they should try to contact the family member concerned before taking any further step or making any decision,” he said. Yahaya said since January, six cases of such scams were recorded in Subang Jaya with total losses amounting to RM48,000. In the recent case on Thursday, a 50-year-old housewife was conned RM10,000 by suspects who introduced themselves as Adam and Inspector Datuk Wong. Yahaya said the victim was told that her son and three other friends were arrested over drug offences in Ampang. “During the phone call, the victim claimed she could hear her son calling for help before the phone was handed over to the bogus inspector. The inspector had told her that her son would be detained for investigation for three weeks,” he said. Yahaya said the suspect then demanded for ‘bribes’ to set her son free, and asked her to put the money in an envelope before placing it in front of a bank in PJS11 After heeding the suspects orders, the woman was directed to go home and her son would be back in two hours. “The woman only realised she was conned when she tried to contact her son after two hours and found out he was at his university the whole day,” he said. Yahaya said such syndicates would use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) such as ‘Magic Jack’ to clone the number of the victim’s loved ones, so that their child’s name would show up on the caller ID. As of now, 19 cases with total losses amounting to RM295,000 were recorded in two districts in Selangor (Subang Jaya and Petaling Jaya), with Petaling Jaya recording the highest number of cases. It was reported that Bukit Aman and Selangor Commercial Crime Investigation Department had set up a task force to track down the syndicates and investigate whether there were any bank insiders who may be working with the syndicate.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 09:08:18 +0000
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