MELAKA: A 72-year-old woman who lost RM553,000 of her life savings to phone scammers two years ago, has not been able to recover her money despite lodging a police report and filing a complaint with the bank.

Kuang Siew Tee, who lives alone at Bukit Cina and does not have a mobile phone, has never used an ATM card since she opened the savings account 29 years ago.

She received a phone call at home from a Chinese who claimed to be a policeman from Sabah on June 10, 2022, informing her that she was found to be involved in a money laundering case.

To resolve the matter, Kuang was told to follow his instructions and not reveal the case to other people.

Kuang was asked to pick up a mobile phone with a phone number hung on a tree in a car park opposite her house.

She was then told to apply for an ATM card for her savings account and register the mobile phone number for the card.

She was also asked to withdraw from two fixed deposit accounts totaling RM328,000 and transfer the sum to her savings account.

She was then asked to place the mobile phone and ATM card back on the tree.

A total of RM30,000 was withdrawn from Kuang’s savings account the following day — RM5,000 cash was withdrawn with the card while RM25,000 was transferred online.

From June 11 to 20, the same amount was withdrawn daily and Kuang received another call on June 21 threatening her to withdraw another fixed deposit placement and savings from her Employee’s Provident Fund account, or the money would be confiscated.

She transferred another RM224,000 into her savings account, said former Kota Melaka Member of Parliament Sim Tong Him.

From June 21 to 28, daily withdrawals were made for a total of RM240,000, and another RM13,000 on June 29, leaving her savings account with only RM476.87.

Kuang only realized she was scammed when she found out she did not have much money left in her savings account while withdrawing RM150 at the counter in the bank on July 15, 2022.

She sought help from Sim, with whom she lodged a police report and filed a complaint with the bank in July 2022.

Two bank officers visited her at her house in August 2022 to let her sign a consent letter to revoke her complaint lodged with the bank and agree to let the police handle the case.

Kuang did not receive reply any from the police or the bank until today although Sim has assisted her to retract the consent letter from the bank.

Sim shared Kuang’s case at a press conference last Friday after referring her case to Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong for follow-up.

At the press conference, Sim said a bank would normally verify after detecting any unusual change in an account holder’s withdrawal habit, such as applying for an ATM card or making regular daily withdrawals of RM30,000 each.

But in Kuang’s case, the daily withdrawals continued without raising any alert.

Sim said the bank should assist in the investigation and not let Kuang shoulder the responsibility herself.

“After some investigations and inquiries, one of the CCTVs captured two non-Chinese men withdrew from Kuang’s savings account.

“All the withdrawals were performed at different locations.

“The thing is, the syndicate seemed to be quite familiar with Kuang’s background, lifestyle, residence and the amount of money she had in the bank,” Sim said.