Technician loses RM58,500 to fake Indonesian export certificate offer

KUALA TERENGGANU – A technician's plan to break into the Indonesian market not only fell through, but cost her RM58,500 after she was allegedly deceived by a scam syndicate.

The woman claimed she was duped by a suspect who purportedly offered to obtain a Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan (BPOM) certificate from the Indonesian authorities so she could export food products to the neighbouring country.

She lodged a report on the case at the Chabang Tiga police station here at 12.54pm yesterday.

Kuala Terengganu district police chief Assistant Commissioner Azli Mohd Noor said the technician first saw an advertisement offering a business opportunity to export food products to Indonesia on Facebook at 9pm on March 23.

"The victim, who was drawn to the offer, joined a WhatsApp group before attending a briefing and subsequently a business trip held from May 15 to 17," he said here today.

"She was told the company involved held a BPOM certificate and made payments totalling RM58,500 for booths for biscuit, anchovy and smoked meat products," he said.

Azli said the payments were made through 10 money transfer transactions into bank accounts provided by the suspect, but the technician was never given the promised BPOM certificate.

He said the woman finally realised she had been cheated when she found that the claimed BPOM certificate held by the 'export company' was in fact fake.