Old woman and brothers lose RM500,000 to ‘lawyer’
Assemblyman tells how the trio were cheated in a scam over arrears of quit rent.
MELAKA: An elderly woman and her two brothers are believed to have lost more than RM500,000 to a syndicate which cheated them by claiming that they owed the government arrears of quit rent.
Duyong assemblyman Damian Yeo Shen Li, said the woman, aged 76, and her two brothers, aged 65 and 68, were informed by the woman’s adopted daughter that she had received a letter from the government which stated that they had to immediately settle the arrears of their house in Jalan Tukang Besi here or risked being evicted.
The adopted daughter then introduced them to a woman known as Siong, purportedly a lawyer, to help solve the problem, Yeo said.
“They communicate only through phone calls and the money including the lawyer’s fee was handed over to the adopted daughter before being paid to the lawyer. More than 10 cash transfers took place between 2015 and early this year,” he told a press conference here today.
The scam came to light only when their other brother, who lives overseas, returned to visit them early this year. The victims lodged a police report in April, Yeo said.
Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram