Scammer posing as M'kini CEO tries to make a quick RM5k

A scammer posing as Malaysiakini CEO Premesh Chandran is trying to solicit money from unsuspecting victims.

Individual Malaysiakini staff members received an email entitled "REQUEST" from a "Premesh" asking them if they were free.

However, the e-mail address - president2822600927262650@gmail.com - was a dead giveaway that this was a scam.

Curious to find out what kind of scam it was, this writer replied to the e-mail to draw out more details.

"Please, I will need you to take care of a payment to a vendor for me, just let me know if you can get it done now and I will provide you with the vendor's information you need in making the payment.

"I will repay you when am through ... I’ll have a check sent to you later today," said the fake "Premesh".

When this writer pretended to oblige, the scammer replied with a Maybank account particulars. However, the scammer declined to disclose which branch the account was at.

To test to see if the scammer was a bot, this writer then asked if the payment was for a portrait of "Premesh" at the office's 10th-floor bathroom. Malaysiakini's office only has three floors.

The scammer replied in the positive, and when further asked if the payment should be for RM10,000, eagerly agreed.

"If you can help me out with the whole RM10,000, I will be very happy. You can pay RM10,000 then so I can have a check sent to you later today. Please do that quick," they replied.

The writer later replied saying that RM5,000 had been deposited and the remaining RM5,000 would be transferred once funds were received.

A Photoshop-ed (fake) ATM cash deposit slip was attached with the email.

The scammer has not replied as of the time of writing.

Malaysiakini has alerted Maybank and Bukit Aman's Commercial Crimes Investigation Department about the scam.

This scam is a variant of advance-fee scams where unwitting individuals are tricked into transferring money with the promise that the money would be returned.

The best-known variant is when an individual pretends to be a Nigerian prince and asks for help facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars by first paying a certain sum.

This is not the first time Malaysiakini has been used in a scam as scammers have been using the portal's name and logo for what appears to be credit card scams.

This scam features purported interviews conducted by Malaysiakini with high-profile personalities such as AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes, astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and tycoon Robert Kuok.

These fake interviews promote the use of a bitcoin service and include a purported review of the service by Malaysiakini.

Separately, this writer was also contacted by a scammer who hijacked Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad's phone number to set up a Telegram account.

The fake Khalid alleged that Inland Revenue Board was investigating the writer and he would soon have his assets frozen. - Mkini