The woman, a DJ at an entertainment centre in Johor Bahru, first received a telephone call from a man posing as a Telekom Malaysia (TM) officer at 1pm on Dec 1.

The “officer” told her she had been blacklisted for failing to pay her phone bill and will be contacted again.

Johor commercial crime investigation department chief Amran Mohd Jusin said the victim then received another call on the same day from a scammer who posed as “Inspector Ling” from the Kuantan police headquarters.

“The woman was informed by ‘Inspector Ling’ that she was involved in money laundering activities. She then told her to bank some money for investigation purposes and that it would be returned once the probe was completed,” he said in a statement today.

Following this, the woman made 58 transactions between Dec 2 until Dec 9 to eight different local bank accounts amounting to RM419,050.00 as instructed by the scammer.

“She realised that she was deceived after failing to contact the ‘police inspector’ once the transactions were completed.”

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.