SANDAKAN: A woman in her 30s has fallen victim to an online scam and lost RM2,850.
The victim was helping her sister, who had befriended a man known as “Brian Wright”, who claimed to be from Australia, via social media.
The woman’s sister said Wright had sent her a laptop computer, a smartphone and jewellery worth US$25,000 (RM111,175), but which were being held by a courier company in Kuala Lumpur.
All the sister had to do was pay courier service charges in order to claim the items.
District police chief assistant commissioner Mohd Azhar Hamin said the woman had agreed to make a deposit of RM2,850, on behalf of her sister, into a bank account so that the parcels could be delivered from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Belud.
"(The woman’ sister had) contacted her to borrow the money.
"She consented and helped to deposit the amount into a bank account, (the number for which was) provided through text and WhatsApp messages," he said.
When her sister did not receive the parcels, the victim lodged a police report yesterday.