My Story of Almost Got Scammed

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 34 seconds. Contains ~915 words. Calculated using Read-o-Meter.

Few days ago, I received a call from someone claiming himself to be the "Pegawai Tadbir Pejabat Mahkamah Majistret Kuantan, Pahang", telling me that I have a court case pending and that I need to attend the court case. He said that I was involved in a case where I sold an illegal bank account to a Chinese guy and the police raided this Chinese guy's hideout and the Chinese guy confessed that I was the one who sold him the bank account. And now I have a debt of RM2.6 million. The Pegawai even gave me the credit card details involved in the fraud such as the credit card number, date of issue, and also which branch where the credit card was issued, etc.. Everything seemed so real.

I told the Pegawai that I am not involved in any of these nonsense, so the Pegawai told me to lodge a police report and have the investigation team to investigate the CCTV of the bank during the date where the credit card was issued. There may be a chance that my personal info has been compromised. The Pegawai then transferred my call to apparently the "police department". The conversation lasted for about 2 hours, asking me questions like "have you lost your IC before", etc.. All the questions seems legit.

They transferred my calls a few times. Until the final person who answered my call, he claim himself to be one of the top people in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission where he is the only one who can clear my name from the blacklisted suspect. He asked for my full cooperation and so I did what I was told. He asked a lot of questions, including my bank account info and password so that they can "check" with Bank Negara to see if the money I have in my bank account is legit and not from doing anything illegal. I asked him why need my password, and he said if I don't cooperate, he will issue a warrant to arrest me. He also said not to login my bank account within the next 45 minutes or else they will freeze my bank account for suspicion of crime. So I comply and gave him my password (how stupid I am).

After that, he said that my bank will give me my TAC number and once I got my TAC number, I need to give it to him. When the TAC message came, I saw that he's going to transfer all my money out.

Image: TAC sent from my bank.

I asked him why can't the investigation be done directly on my bank account, why need to transfer out my money? He keep saying that they need to check if the money I have is legit or illegal, and keep pressing me that if I don't cooperate, they will issue a warrant to have me and my family arrested.

He told me that he can clear my name from the suspect list, but he don't have any reason to trust me that I am not affiliated with the Chinese guy they apprehended. So he wants my money to check with Bank Negara to proof that my money is clean. I said the same thing to him... "How can I know this is not a scam?". The person over the phone yelled at me and tell me to google for the number of PDRM Pahang (Ibu Pejabat Polis Kontinjen Pahang). And tell me to check my phone and compare the number with the number from Google.

Image: Result I found on Google.

Image: The number that I received from the person calling me (I've blocked the number since then). The only different here is the +6 in front, which is the international calling code for Malaysia. So, I didn't think much about it.
Edit: Thanks to @bensimblog for pointing out that the real international calling code for Malaysia is +6, not +06. The +06 is clearly fake.

After confirming this with Google, I was convinced that he really is someone from the police department. But then again, I think to myself if the money is transferred out, there's a chance that I can no longer get back my money. I pondered for a good long 3 minutes, while the person over the phone keep threatening me. Finally, I told him that I don't want to give my cooperation. I will go to the police station. He then said "Don't just go to the police station. Bring your clean sets of clothes, and also your family. Surrender yourself and your family. All of you will be put to jail for 5 - 7 years.".

I panicked like hell. I logged in to my bank account and immediately have my password changed. Then I went straight to the police station with my mom to do a police report. The police said not to worry, this is just a scam case. These days these scammers are getting good. They act good, and they even spoof their contact number to seem like the real number calling me. The police said to check my bank account to see if my money is still intact or not. If still intact, I don't need to do a police report. The police officer even emphasized at the message I got from my bank that "Do not respond to any email/sms/phone call requesting you to reveal your TAC.".

To every one that's reading this blog, please share my story out. It may help your loved ones.

Please upvote if my story has helped you. Thank you.