MIRI — A local housewife, in her 50s, suffered losses amounting to RM130,000 after falling for an online job scam in the Miri district.

Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Mancha Anak Ata said the scam occurred after the victim was attracted to an advertisement for a part-time job on the TikTok social media early in November.

“The victim was contacted by an unknown individual who posed as an agent through the TikTok application and subsequently, the victim was added to a ‘Telegram group’,” he said in a statement here today.

According to Mancha, the suspect then informed the victim that they had received a commission on the victim’s digital application and the victim was also given another task to promote a product from a clothing brand company.

The victim was asked to make a payment to have the commission released to her. 

Deceived the suspect’s words, the victim made several money transactions, amounting to approximately RM130,000, into the bank account provided by the suspect.

Mancha said the victim only realised she had been scammed when she was still asked to make another payment in order to receive the commission.

In this regard, Mancha advised the public not to easily believe in such job offers on social media and to carry out research first before agreeing to undertaking any tasks.

The public is also advised to check companies and websites that are not authorised or approved on the website www.bnm.qov.my/BNM TELELINK 1-300-88-5465 (Bank Negara Malaysia) and www.sc.com.my (03-62048999) (Securities Commission of Malaysia).

He added that the public should download the Whoscall application via the Google Play Store or Apple Store to identify whether the calls received are from phone numbers listed in the Semak Mule system database of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department are from scammers. — BERNAMA