Z
Zhen Ji
Guest
Thursday January 13, 2011
Be wary of loan and tender scams
KUANTAN: Police have warned the public to be wary of conmen who cheat people with offers of quick and easy loans or tenders for small projects.
These crooks had raked in more than RM134,600 in 20 cases last year, said Pahang commercial crime chief Supt Zaini Jass.
Ten of the cases were reported in Kuantan, while others were reported in Bera (six), Temerloh (two) and one each in Pekan and Maran.
The victims were duped with offers of easy personal loans and tenders for small projects, some of which were promised to be approved within 24 hours.
Supt Zaini said the victims would first respond to advertisements on stickers pasted around town.
This would be followed by a short telephone interview, conducted by the culprits on the pretext of vetting callers.
The prospective client would then be asked to deposit 10% of the requested loan amount.
The money would have to be deposited in a certain bank account before the purported loan could be approved.
“The unsuspecting ‘applicants’ who followed the instructions only realised they had been cheated after their calls went unanswered.
“The loans ranged from RM520 to RM45,000,” Supt Zaini said. Police have nabbed several suspects, aged 30 to 50, in connection with the cases.
Supt Zaini also said that in the last four months of last year, eight contractors reported losses totalling RM24,000 to conmen who contacted them in the guise of district education officers.
“The suspects called the contractors with offers to build covered walkways in schools.
“The contactors, however, were told they needed to make a contribution to the school via a certain personal bank account before the tenders could be issued.”
Supt Zaini said the contributions ranged from RM1,500 to RM3,000, adding that such cases were reported in Kuantan, Temerloh, Jerantut, Pekan and Bera.
He advised the public not to be gullible when coming across offers that appear “too good to be true”.
