Kota Kinabalu: A woman has come forward to raise the alarm over a scheme circulating on social media after she lost RM40,000 she had invested into it.
The scheme, which has been making rounds on various social media platforms, lured interested investors with promises of lucrative returns.
The woman said she deposited RM20,000 into the account on two separate occasions, bringing her total investment to RM40,000.
She said the pitch used to solicit her investment was presented as a public-private partnership initiative allegedly involving government agencies, universities and private companies, framed around promoting integrity and curbing corruption in the country’s project financing system.
She said she did not receive the promised profits and believed to have fallen victim to a scam.
She said she had written to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to raise her concerns and was informed in response that the central bank was not involved in such arrangements and believed it to be a scam.
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BNM, in its email reply, said scammers typically lured victims with offers that were “too good to be true”, such as a huge sum of money or an inheritance, requiring victims to pay an initial amount to facilitate the transaction.
The BNM, in the email, advised the public to stay vigilant and avoid depositing any money requested under such schemes, adding that fraud and cheating are offences under the Penal Code and fall under police jurisdiction.
The woman hopes the relevant authorities will take notice of the matter and act swiftly against the operators of such schemes before more people become victims.
She also urged the public to remain vigilant and avoid being easily enticed by promises of quick and easy money, as such offers are often used to lure unsuspecting investors into scams.
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