Woman Posing as ‘Police Officer’ Arrested Over Scam Involving Retired Teacher

KOTA BHARU: Police have arrested a woman to assist investigations into a scam involving individuals posing as police officers, which resulted in a 75-year-old retired teacher losing RM15,000 in Bachok recently.

The 31-year-old suspect was arrested in the city on Sept 13 following intelligence gathering and information received by police.

Kelantan Police Chief Datuk Mohd. Yusoff Mamat said that in the Sept 12 incident, the victim received a phone call from an individual claiming to be a police officer from the Johor Police Contingent Headquarters (IPK).

He said the bogus police officer told the victim that he had a court summons amounting to RM25,000 and was allegedly involved in money laundering and a drug syndicate, offences that could result in a 15-year prison sentence.

“The call was then connected via WhatsApp to another individual claiming to be a senior police officer from Bukit Aman.

“The victim was instructed to keep the matter confidential before being told to hand over two automated teller machine (ATM) cards, as well as his wife’s necklace and pendant, on the pretext that an investigating officer would come to his house,” he said when contacted today.

Mohd. Yusoff said that at about 5pm, a woman arrived at the victim’s house in a car, collected the items and then left.

He said preliminary investigations found that the suspect had received instructions via WhatsApp from an unidentified individual to collect the victim’s belongings.

“The victim managed to contact the bank to block the ATM cards, and no transactions were detected.

“The gold necklace was then sold to a jewellery shop in Kota Bharu on the same day, while part of the proceeds from the sale was deposited into a third party’s account,” he said.

Mohd. Yusoff said the gold necklace was subsequently recovered from the jewellery shop.

He said the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

Utusan Malaysia