Kuala Terengganu district police chief Azli Noor said the victim, who is visually impaired, received a phone call on June 24 from a scammer claiming to be an insurance company representative.

He said the scammer accused the victim of having made a false health insurance claim, and warned him that he would face legal action.

“The victim denied the accusation and the call was then transferred to another man posing as a police officer.

“Apart from the false insurance claim, the victim was accused of being involved in money laundering activities,” he said in a statement today.

“The scammer posing as the police officer then instructed the victim to open a new bank account for investigation purposes and he was told not to use the account.”

Fearing that he would land in jail, the victim transferred all the money from his and his wife’s savings accounts into the new bank account.

On Sept 25, the victim mentioned the incident to his son, who immediately checked the new account.

“He found that a total of RM431,742 had been transferred in stages from July 6 to Aug 14 from the new account to an unidentified account.

“The victim lodged a police report yesterday.” he said.