JOHOR BARU: A businessman who was hoping that his stock investments would pay off is now in financial ruin after falling victim to an overseas online scam.

The man in his 60s, who wanted to be known only as Tee, said he had used up almost all his savings from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) totalling RM900,000 and borrowed almost another RM480,000 to invest a total of about RM1.38mil in supposed initial public offerings (IPOs) in China.

He claimed that his investments in the platform had actually increased in value to RM4.7mil, but he was unable to make any withdrawal.

Tee also said he tried to make a withdrawal of RM2.7mil several days ago, but the system did not process it.

“They (investment company representatives) asked me to pay another RM650,000 cash as ‘profit-sharing’ if I wanted to withdraw the RM4.7mil.

“I told them to just take it from my amount, but they said I needed to pump in fresh funds. I have already used up all my savings and I do not have anything else,” he said in an interview.

Tee said he got to know about the company through an advertisement on social media in September last year.

“Initially, I did not pay much attention to it. But I thought there was no harm in finding out about their investment schemes.

“I was immediately put in a group of more than 100 people and asked to trade in Malaysian stocks using my own account.

“For the next few weeks, the investment ‘guru’ would give stock picks. Initially, I put in RM5,000 and was able to make a withdrawal of RM7,500 including profits,” he said, adding that it gave him the confidence that it was a legitimate platform.

Tee said between last November and January this year, he made a total of 22 transactions to four accounts of between RM5,000 and RM408,000, totalling RM1.38mil.

After seeing his investments grow on the platform, he wanted to make a withdrawal but was unsuccessful, so he used the Semak Mule application, as advised by a friend.

It was then that he found dozens of police reports had been lodged against the account numbers to which he had transferred the funds.

“I confronted the platform administrators, but they claimed they were not involved in any illegal activity. They gave me until Jan 10 (today) to pay up the balance of the RM650,000 cash to make the withdrawal of RM4.7mil from my account,” he said, adding that he later lodged a police report.Tee said he now finds himself in financial ruin.

When contacted, a police official said the authorities are investigating the case under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

He urged the public to be cautious when making large transfers to various accounts online, and to always use the Semak Mule mobile app or go to https://semakmule.rmp.gov.my to check if any of the bank accounts or phone numbers concerned have been associated with suspicious activities.

This article first appeared on The Star.