Crime |Phone scams targeting more residents

The Judiciary Police (PJ) have reported two similar cases of what seems to be a new type of phone scam.
Police force spokesperson, Tam Weng Keong, stated during a press conference yesterday that a local resident, aged 26, was contacted over the phone by a woman claiming to be from a Shanghai Telecom company.
During the phone call, the woman claimed that someone had used the victims ID card to open a mobile phone account within the company.
The scammer continued to explain that this number had been uploading large quantities of photographs with pornographic content to the web, and was caught by the police who were now searching for information on the case. The scammer allegedly passed the call on to a supposed police officer from the Shanghai Police who requested personal information such as ID number, full name, and date of birth amongst other information that the victim provided over the phone thinking that she was speaking to a real officer.
Following the interaction and realizing that she may have been victim to scam she decided to report the case to the PJ.
Another complaint was received by the police, involving a man who experienced a similar call from the same Shanghai Telecom Company and stating a similar case of “abuse” of personal information, after the call was passed to a supposed police officer that informed the victim that they had been implicated in a case of a swindle that totaled RMB 2.6 million.
In this instance, the alleged police officer offered to help to hire an attorney to assist in the case in mainland China, asking that a fee of RMB20,000 be transferred to a bank account in mainland China.
The victim attempted to transfer the requested sum but after the transaction failed to be completed at the bank, she decided to call her husband who suspected that she has been targeted in a scam and reported it to the PJ.