Penang police chief Azizee Ismail said the first case involved a 62-year-old man who worked as a machinery attendant and suffered a loss of RM1.294 million after being scammed in an online investment scheme known as “Global Finance Trends XA”.
“The commercial crime investigation division of the Seberang Perai Tengah police headquarters received a report from the victim on Thursday. The man said he became interested in the investment scheme after seeing an advertisement on Facebook in March before being contacted by a woman via WhatsApp.
“The scammer offered investments that allegedly originated in China under a company, Citic Wealth Advisors Sdn Bhd. She told the victim he would earn high profits and initially, she only gave local investment tips and the profit predictions given were found to be accurate, causing the victim to begin to believe in the scheme,” he said in a statement last night.
He said the victim was then asked to download the “Global Finance Trends XA” app for registration and investment transactions before making 28 transactions, transferring a total of RM1.397 million to a CIMB bank account in the name of the company between April 6 and May 4.
Azizee said the man only received RM103,000 in profit and realised he had been cheated after failing to withdraw the RM1 million profit displayed on the app.
In a separate case, he said a former female company director, 72, also lost RM1.403 million after being scammed by an online investment syndicate using the name “Shanghai Futures Exchange”.
“The victim met a foreign man via Facebook in July 2023 before the relationship continued via the LINE application. The suspect also sent a picture of his identity card to convince the victim that he really existed before offering an investment scheme that promised high profits in a short period of time.
“The victim was then asked to visit a website via a link provided for membership registration and investment purposes. Between Nov 27 last year and Feb 5, she made 53 transactions, transferring a total of RM1.403 million into 30 different bank accounts, including 26 individual accounts and four company accounts,” he said.
Azizee added that the victim only realised she had been scammed after failing to withdraw the RM30 million profit displayed on the app, and her account had been blocked while the suspect could not be contacted.
He said further investigations were underway and both cases were being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code, for fraud.