TELUK INTAN, March 9 — A retiree lost more than RM50,000 after falling victim to a Macau Scam while in the house here last Thursday.

Hilir Perak police chief ACP Ahmad Adnan Basri said the 61-year-old man received a call from an individual who claimed he was from Telekom Malaysia and told the victim that he had an outstanding telephone bill.

"The victim denied and alleged somebody else is using his name and line and the call was transferred to an individual who introduced himself as a sergeant in Seremban, Negri Sembilan.

"The suspect claimed that he had checked in the system and found the victim was involved in money laundering. The suspect said he cannot help the victim but put the call to an ‘officer’ at Bukit Aman police headquarters who masqueraded as Datuk Reduan,” he said in a statement here.

As soon as he was connected to Datuk Reduan, the victim was told to withdraw his money and surrender the bank account details of his wife to settle the problem including for inspection by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).

"‘Datuk Reduan’ said he wanted to help the victim and asked for the bank account details of the victim and his wife and to transfer their money to other accounts for the purpose of inspection by BNM. The suspect later took over the accounts by transferring the money of the victim and his wife amounting to about RM57,200 to an unidentified third party account,” he added.

Ahmad Adnan said the victim later became aware he had been duped by a syndicate and made a police report yesterday and the case was investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

Members of the public are therefore advised to be extra careful in not revealing their bank account details to strangers, he said. — Bernama