KUALA LUMPUR — If you think you are a savvy investor who could never get scammed into a fake investment, think again.

This is the real-life story of how a retired professional who dabbles in stock investments found himself losing RM47,000 in a scam two months ago, as shared by his lawyer Mohanthas Narayanasamy (with his permission).

Read on to see how the investment scam unfolded:

On Facebook, scammers shared a website offering free lessons on investing in stocks.

When the retiree clicked on the invitation link in Facebook, he was sent a link to join a WhatsApp group.

In the WhatsApp group, there was a “teacher” and an “assistant”. The assistant contacted him at least once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the evening.

The scammers held sharing sessions on stock trading every day and reminded him of the sessions almost every night.

To gain his trust, the scammers recommended one or two stocks for investment, while other WhatsApp group members would praise the “teacher” and “assistant” for the good stock picks. But these WhatsApp group “members” are actually part of the scammers’ group.

In fact, more than half or 80 per cent of the handphone numbers in the WhatsApp group are owned by the scammers. 

To gain the victim’s trust and confidence, these purported “members” would also “invest” in the same proposed investment plan.

The scammers used a customer service number to solicit investments via an online app under their control.The scammers promoted the method of depositing money for stock investments by “piggybacking” onto the “teacher’s” or scam operator’s “institution account”. 

So, any deposits you make into the “trading system” will be under the scammer’s control.

If you have already been investing in stocks and shares, the scammers’ operations looked almost exactly like a “professional” investment scheme, Mohanthas said.