This came after she was told that she had bought excessive amounts of medicines from a government clinic, police said.

Negeri Sembilan commercial crime investigation department chief Aibee Abd Ghani said a man claiming to be from the health ministry rang up the 41-year-old teacher early this month.

The teacher became frightened after the man accused her of buying excessive amounts of medicines from the Ipoh Community Clinic in Perak from March 1 to 28.

The call was then connected to the “Perak police headquarters” where she was told there was a report showing her links to a man who had been jailed for cheating a bank.

“The woman was told there were 400 ATM debit cards in the man’s house and one of them belonged to her,” he said in a statement here today.

Aibee said the woman was also accused of taking RM273,000 from the man but was offered a deal for the matter to be kept a secret and to avoid arrest.

The woman was then connected to an “inspector” who directed her to bank money into several accounts for checking by the auditor-general.

The woman banked in RM276,000 between April 11 and yesterday.

She only realised she had been conned when her calls to the numbers given to her went unanswered.

Aibee said apart from using her own savings, the victim had also taken loans from banks and borrowed from friends to make the payments.

In another case, a married couple, aged 69 and 64, were conned of RM30,000 after being convinced by a person that they had won RM500,000 in a four-digit lottery in Bahau, Jempol.

“The couple went to Kuala Pilah Maybank in the person’s car and withdrew RM25,000 over the counter and RM5,000 via ATM,” he said.

After handing over the money to the suspect inside the car, the couple was taken to a bank in Bahau and abandoned there, he added.