BATU PAHAT: A retired school teacher lost RM249,682 of her savings to a home cleaning service scam advertised on Facebook on April 13.
The 59-year-old retiree stumbled upon the advertisement on Facebook which offered the home cleaning services at a reasonable price.
She contacted the number on the advertisement via WhatsApp and was directed to click the given application link.
The scammer instructed her to fill her details and make the booking fee payment for their services, through the shared link.
District police chief Assistant Commissioner Ismail Dollah said the teacher clicked the link and proceeded with the scammers' instructions.
Upon entering her personal and banking information, the victim discovered the payment process had failed.
However, she received a call from her bank officer shortly after that to inform her that multiple online transfers amounting to RM249,682 were made in a span of several minutes.
Ismail said investigations revealed the link given to the victim was a phishing bank link, and the victim was duped into providing her online banking username and password.