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Malaysian bunker company cheated of $1.1m in email payment scam

Malaysian bunker company cheated of $1.1m in email payment scam
A bunker fuel dealer from Sungai Petani in Kedah in the northern part of Peninsula Malaysia has fallen victim to an e-mail payment scam and lost $1.1m.

Local reports said the owner of the bunker fuel company was cheated by a fake bunker fuel supply company, which asked him to make payment into a US-based bank account.

The scammers had apparently used spyware to infiltrate the victim's computer and spy on e-mail correspondence between the victim and his actual supplier in Singapore.

They then masqueraded as the supplier to invoice the victim for payment into a bank account, which he duly paid up, ignoring the fact that it was different from the supplier's regular account.

The bunker dealer only realised he had been cheated after the real supplier contacted him for payment," Kedah police chief Asri Yusoff said.

Asri said the victim made two police reports on the fraud on 8 and 10 June after realising he had been deceived in two transactions on 31 May and 2 June to a Hong Kong-based company.

Police are still investigating the incident and will cooperate with Interpol to detect syndicates active in this country, he added while advising companies to secure their computer systems against spyware.

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for fraud. Kedah is not typically a major consumer of bunker fuel in Peninsula Malaysia.