Elderly retiree duped by fake police, loses RM15,000 and wife's gold necklace

On September 12, a retired teacher in Bachok received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer of the Johor contingent, warning of a RM25,000 court summons for alleged involvement in money-laundering and a drug syndicate. The call was transferred to another individual posing as a senior Bukit Aman officer via WhatsApp, who told the victim to keep the issue secret and to surrender two ATM cards and his wife's gold necklace with a pendant for an investigating officer.

At 5 p.m. a woman arrived at his house, took the items and left; the necklace was sold that day and part of the money was deposited into a third-party account. Police arrested a 31-year-old woman on September 13, seized the ATM cards, a Perodua Axia, receipts and recovered the necklace from the gold shop. The victim managed to block the cards before any transactions occurred. Authorities warned that genuine police, courts, Bank Negara Malaysia or banks never request personal cards, PINs or jewellery.