KUANTAN, Jan 12 — A retired school teacher has been left high and dry after losing her savings of RM120,000 to a Macau scam syndicate.

Pahang Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Supt Mohd Wazir Mohd Yusof said the 84-year-old woman received a call telling her that her telephone line would be terminated in two hours due to her involvement in online gambling.

"Although she denied her involvement, she was then connected to another person posing as a policeman, who informed her that a remand order had been issued against her,”he told reporters here yesterday.

The victim was then connected to a third person, allegedly from Bank Negara Malaysia, who instructed her to transfer all her money to an account number he gave her so as to avoid having her account frozen and for security purposes.

Fearing the worse, she did as was told, making eight transactions totalling RM120,000 between December 31, 2018 and January 8 this year.

Mohd Wazir said the suspects continued to demand additional cash and the victim, suspecting that she might have been cheated, lodged a report at the Temerloh District Police Station on Thursday. — Bernama