Teen allegedly cheated victims of RM11,000 in bazaar scam

KUALA LUMPUR: Just 19 but he allegedly managed to convince a number of traders to take up plots at a Ramadan bazaar last month.

He set out by posting advertisements in Facebook and other social media platforms posing as a representative of the organiser of the Ramadan bazaar and Aidilfitri Festival event which was planned to be held at the Bukit Jalil Stadium last month.

Police learnt that the teenager had altered the original advertisement posted by the organiser by replacing the contact numbers with his.

Kuala Lumpur commercial crimes investigations department (CCID) head ACP Mahidisham Ishak(pix) said the teenager was arrested after police received six reports from victims who claimed to have paid a downpayment of between RM1,500 and RM2,700 to him.

He said the victims realised they had been duped after checks with the organiser showed that plans for the bazaar and the event had been cancelled.

Mahidisham said the organiser also told the victims that their cash deposits to secure the bazaar plots were not received.

He said the victims had failed to recover their payments and the total losses reported was RM11,300.

He said following the police reports, the teenage suspect was arrested on Friday and investigators learnt that he had used his bank account to receive the payments from the victims.

Mahidisham said the teenager is being held under a remand order.

He said more people may have fallen victim to the suspect and urged them to come forward to lodge police reports or contact the Cheras CCID chief ASP Janarthanan Govindan at 012-5734374.