KUALA LUMPUR: A Casanova is on the prowl, deceiving three by having them take out loans from money lenders under the pretext of keeping his lorry business afloat.
The 33-year-old man, known as Vick, has been duping his victims with the promise of marriage. Vic runs his con act through online app, WeChat. He will disappear once he gets the money from his victims.
One of them, Linda, realised that she has been fooled by Vick, has lodged two police reports after his cheques to her bounced.
Linda said that she met Vick in April 2016. After one month, the Casanova, purportedly from Ampang, had proposed to her, immediately earning her trust as he tried to manipulate the situation to get her to borrow money for his business.
After taking up a loan of RM17,000 for his lorry business, Linda said Vick had promised to pay her back in monthly instalments of RM900.
“When Vick first asked me to help, I was sceptical and I was afraid to borrow money from loan sharks because I have no money to pay back the interests,” she said.
“He will get angry and told me off for not helping him with his business. I trusted him only when he showed me that his company was registered under Companies Commission of Malaysia back in May 2016,” the Klang native said.
“Now all I want is my money back. The last time we had contact was in November after I requested that he pays back all the money he borrowed from me,” she said.
“After that, he went missing. I tried searching for clues on his Facebook account and I found there’s a lady who liked a picture of him on Facebook, who turned out to be his wife. I tried contacting her and she said that they have been married for three years and apologised to me,” she said.
“Why I wanted to come out and tell my story is to remind girls that they should be cautious of men who are overly charming because they might have something up their sleeve,” the account executive said.
The 36-year-old now has to pay off RM 7,000 and RM 10,000 to a money lender and bank, respectively.
The victim also added that she gave the man RM4,170 during their courtship.
She hopes that her story will allow others to practise caution when meeting up strangers online.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong hoped that with Linda’s courage in sharing her story will encourage other victims to come forward and tell their story.
Chong said he has received two other complaints, similar to Linda’s Casanova case, this year alone and he believed that the same man is behind this con.
Aside from that, he has also received 10 other complaints involving Internet scam where the victims ended up losing their money and contact with the perpetrator.