BALIK PULAU: A 47-year-old man who posed as a high-ranking civil servant to cheat 49 people of more than RM700,000, was arrested at a hotel in Prai.

He was picked up by a Balik Pulau commercial crime investigation department team at 5pm on Thursday after a tip-off.

OCPD Supt Anuar Omar said police had been looking for the con man after a cheating report was lodged against him earlier this month.

“We spent about two weeks monitoring him before the arrest. A handphone, two ATM cards, eight SIM cards, two Malaysian passports, several photocopies of MyKads and documents with the details of victims, aged between 30 and 60, were seized.

“He was responsible for 48 other cases involving RM717,317.50 in other states since 2001,” he told a press conference at the district police headquarters here yesterday.

Supt Anuar said the man would pose as a Road Transport Department (JPJ) deputy director or Tabung Haji executive officer to dupe his victims into believing that he had vehicles to sell at low prices or he could arrange cheap Haj packages.

“The victims were asked to transfer money into the man’s bank account or some other people’s accounts.

“He has 17 ‘Wanted’ records. He has since been remanded pending investigations into the cases classified as cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code,” Supt Anuar said.

He added that the suspect was hard to trace as he never stayed in the same place for long.

He reminded the public not to believe in deals which seemed too good to be true.

“Research should be done before any cash transaction is made.”-thestar