KUCHING, April 13 — A housewife in her 40s here lost nearly RM39,000 after being duped by an illegitimate part-time job recruitment advertisement on Facebook.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Public Complaints Bureau chief Milton Foo said after the victim clicked on the advertisement on April 1, she was directed to a customer service representative via WhatsApp and instructed to log into a supposed work account to carry out tasks, which involved booking hotel orders.
“She was then asked to remit money to the platform to receive her remuneration or commission after taking screenshots and sending them back to the customer service.
“After the platform’s so-called financial department confirmed the tasks, the work remuneration would supposedly be remitted into her bank account,” he said in a statement Saturday.
He said according to the victim, she did receive payment after completing the task the first time, which prompted her to continue for another five or six times.
She said that however, the scammers, which posed as representatives of the company behind the advertisement, kept insisting she had pending orders to complete so she continued transferring money to multiple bank accounts provided by them.
“After completing many orders and making multiple online transfers, they did not remit any money or commission to me. They also claimed that there was an issue with my work account, which prevented the commissions from being credited to my bank account.
“The customer service and finance department representatives further informed me via WhatsApp that if I chose not to make further payments, I could close my work account — but I would not be able to recover the money,” the victim recounted.
Foo said the victim made 13 online transfers within just a few days, amounting to nearly RM39,000.
Upon realising she had likely been deceived, she lodged a report at the Siburan Police Station on April 8 to facilitate a criminal investigation.
Foo reminded the public not to be easily enticed by high-paying recruitment or part-time job advertisements on social media, as well as offers of low-interest online loans, high-return stock investment schemes, and other similar online scams.
“These are all unrealistic online frauds aiming to scam our hard earned money. The scam victim not only has to suffer financial losses, but sometimes even face the intimidation from fraudsters by threats and extortion, or by blackmailing the victim and their family members.
“According to the statistics at my hand, since I took over SUPP Public Complaint Bureau in 2022, the total amount of money for online and tele fraud has exceeded RM30 million,” he said. — The Borneo Post
Date: 13 April, 2026 10:00 am
Source: Malay Mail
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