ALOR SETAR, Nov 1 — A 63-year-old woman rubber tapper in Kedah has been cheated of RM74,800 by a man she befriended on Facebook, in what police described as a case of "excessive trust and infatuation”.

Kedah Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Supt Elias Omar said the married woman continued communicating with the man via WhatsApp after they first met on Facebook in July this year.

"The suspect introduced himself as a doctor from Ireland named Ibrahim Aziz and asked the woman to bank in some money to activate his bank account,” he said in a statement today.

He said an individual also contacted the suspect asking her to pay for the tax and fine imposed on some items which the suspect had promised to send her to mark their friendship.

"As requested, the smitten woman banked in RM74,800 of her savings into three accounts via the cash deposit machine in 25 transactions from September to October this year,” Elias said.

"The woman only realised she had been conned after the suspect asked for more payments. She lodged a police report in Baling yesterday,” he added. — Bernama