BATU PAHAT, June 26 — A logistics company suffered a loss of RM321,698.74 after being deceived by a business e-mail compromise (BEC) fraud syndicate in March.

Batu Pahat district deputy police chief Supt Shahrulanuar Mushaddat Abdullah Sani, said that a report related to the case was received from an employee of the company who was on duty as a cashier, a few days after the incident.

He said the incident began on March 27, when the victim received an e-mail from an overseas company stating a new account change and requesting payment of RM448,215.11 for container rental costs.

"Without checking for verification, on April 2, the victim transferred money from the company’s account to an overseas bank account as requested.

"The victim then contacted the representative of the actual company to verify the payment, but was informed by the representative that they had never sent a memo via e-mail for payment to the new account,” he said.

Upon further check, the victim discovered that the email address was fake. Despite consulting the bank to cancel the money transfer, only RM122,709.76 was recovered and returned to the company’s account. — Bernama