JOHOR BARU, Dec 28 — Two men have fallen prey to separate online job and love scams in Johor, losing a combined sum of RM495,520.

In the first incident, a 57-year-old unemployed man was scammed of RM252,900 after falling prey to a part-time job offer by an individual via WhatsApp.

Johor deputy police chief DCP M. Kumar said the victim lodged a police report on December 21 claiming the individual promised quick and lucrative earnings if he uploaded certain videos on social media as instructed and clicked on the like button of provided links.

"The victim did so and also transferred RM252,900 to several accounts as instructed.

"However, he realised he had been cheated after failing to receive any of the returns promised, in addition to being instructed to transfer more funds to access the earnings,” he said in a statement today.

In the second case, Kumar said a 69-year-old private sector retiree lost RM242,620 in a love scam.

He said the man lodged a police report yesterday claiming he befriended a foreigner on social media and was cheated a month later.

Kumar said the foreigner, who purportedly had a job in Malaysia, had contacted the victim saying she was detained at the Malaysian Immigration Department for not declaring cash which exceeded the permitted sum.

"The foreigner sought the victim’s help to release her from detention and instructed him to transfer funds to several accounts, before vanishing,” he said.

He said both cases have been classified under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

Kumar also advised the public to be vigilant about financial transactions and refer to the Commercial Crime Investigation Department’s Facebook and TikTok pages for information on the modus operandi of such scams, including commercial crimes like fraudulent investments. — Bernama