Seberang Perai Utara police chief Noorzainy Mohd Noor said the victim was attracted by an investment advertisement received via a Whatsapp chat message on June 4 from an unknown person.

He made a call to the number of the WhatsApp account.

“In the subsequent conversation, a person claiming to be an investment agent asked the victim to deposit RM500 into a bank account whose number was provided,” he said.

He was then instructed to bank in a bigger amount of money to receive bigger returns, which he did up on 10 occasions, transferring funds amounting to a total of RM18,983 in Mak Mandin and Butterworth before realising that he had been conned.

The victim lodged a police report yesterday.

A police investigation found that the money was from the victim’s father who had just come into his Employee’s Provident Fund savings,” Noorzainy said.