Johor police chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said police had received a report yesterday.

He said the scammers had contacted the woman and informed her that she was being investigated for being involved in money laundering activities.

“The call was then transferred to a ‘Mr Yong’, who posed as a police officer. The victim became fearful and followed the man’s instructions to open an HSBC account in the victim’s name and was told to provide her ATM card number and pin to him,” he said.

Ayob Khan added that between Sept 3 and Sept 17, the victim transferred money amounting to RM1,032,513.65 from her OCBC, RHB, CIMB, Ambank and Public Bank accounts to the HSBC account.

He said the victim also handed over all the transaction authorisation code (TAC) numbers to the suspect.

Ayob Khan said on Sept 21, the victim checked the balance in her HSBC account and found she had lost all the money.

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating. If convicted, the offender can be jailed for not less than one year and a maximum of 10 years.

Ayob Khan advised the public to be more careful and be aware of reports in the media and social media on the various scams that are happening online.