KUANTAN: Online romance blossomed when Fong (not his real name) approved a friend request notification from a woman on Facebook last month.
The 42-year-old labourer assumed he had found a friend who would become his life partner but what happened next is "beyond imagination." The woman, whom he never met, sweet-talked him into parting with RM29,000 of his hard earned savings.
Fong, a bachelor, said he received a friend request from the woman only identified as 'Yang Xue' on Dec 5 last year on Facebook before they began communicating on Facebook Messenger and spoke through WhatsApp calls.
"She used to call me using loving terms such as "darling" and we communicated quite often. A week later, she introduced me to an application known as Ubei and told me that I could earn some commission by helping to buy, and sell some products.
"On Dec 13, I transferred RM1,000 into an unknown account number provided by Yang and when I checked the application, I had earned RM250 commission. The next day, I transferred RM25,000 followed by another RM3,000 on Dec 18.
"She told me that the cash which I deposited was payment to purchase branded watches, jewellery and other luxury items. We still spoke over the phone until Dec 21 when she stopped picking up my calls and I was worried about my money," he told reporters at Semambu assemblyman Chan Chun Kuang's service centre here today.
Fong, who lodged a police report at the Kuantan police headquarters here on Dec 24, said he transferred the RM29,000 cash into two bank accounts belonging to local men and another belonging to a company, and hoped the authorities will be able to track them down.
"I have read about online scam cases but never realised that I will end up becoming a victim. Everything appeared to be genuine...I did not realise that she was lying when she told me to transfer the money," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation public relations officer Daniel Khoo, who was present at the press conference, reminded the public not to click on links or respond to unexpected texts on social media platforms.
"Scammers will use images of attractive women to bait male victims, and likewise. Every week, our organisation receives dozens of reports involving scam cases.....the government is doing their best to educate Malaysians on scam cases and we seek the public cooperation on the matter," he said.
Meanwhile, Chan said he will be meeting the police to gather more details on the case and see how they could track down the culprits involved to recover Fong's money.