Company in Ipoh loses RM970,000 after clerk duped by WhatsApp scam posing as boss

IPOH, July 9 — A company suffered losses of RM970,000 after its clerk fell victim to a scam syndicate yesterday.

Muallim district police chief Supt Khalid Mohamad said the victim, a 31-year-old clerk from a food distribution company, lodged a report on the incident at about 11 am yesterday.

“The clerk claimed she had received a WhatsApp message from an individual she believed to be her company manager.

“The company manager’s mobile phone is believed to have been hacked by the suspect, who then instructed the victim to make several financial transactions on behalf of the company,” he said in a statement last night.

Khalid said the victim transferred a total of RM970,000 in three separate transactions into two different bank accounts as instructed by the suspect.

“The suspect continued to ask the victim to make further transactions, prompting her to become suspicious.

“The victim later contacted the company manager for verification and was informed that no such instructions had been issued for the transactions. Realising she had been deceived, the victim subsequently lodged a police report,” he said.

Khalid said the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

He advised fraud victims to immediately contact the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) at 997 to enable swift action to be taken and increase the chances of freezing the transferred funds. — Bernama