Student falls from 39th floor after scammer convinces her she’s wanted for murder
A foreign student fell to her death in Selangor, Malaysia on Saturday (22 March) after a scammer posing as a police officer falsely accused her of murdering an elderly woman.
Source: China Press
20-year-old Li Bowen had only been in Malaysia for five days, having arrived from China to pursue her studies on 13 March, when the scammer first contacted her.
The fraudster demanded that Ms Li pay 258,000 yuan (around S$48,000) to clear her name, threatening her with arrest and at least a year in prison if she failed to comply.
Source: China Press
Believing she was responsible for someone’s death, Ms Li was consumed with guilt.
Unable to cope with the mental pressure and unwilling to burden her family, she jumped from the 39th floor of her rented apartment.
Student asked mum to remit money for ’emergency’ before fatal fall
Ms Li’s parents, who live in Shandong, China, told China Press that they lost contact with their daughter after a phone call at noon on 22 March.
Later, Ms Li’s friends in Malaysia informed them that their daughter had fallen to her death.
Source: China Press
After flying to Malaysia the following day, Mrs Li discovered that her daughter had jumped from the building, feeling overwhelmed by the scam.
“My daughter asked me vaguely about the amount of savings at home when we spoke at noon on the 22nd,” Mrs Li explained. “She then wrote a handwritten letter asking me to send 258,000 yuan to her for an ’emergency’.”
At the time, she had no idea what was happening, so she didn’t send the money immediately.
Scammer posed as police officer & demanded money
Through the victim’s mobile phone, her parents discovered that a man identifying himself as Officer Du Feng from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau’s Hongkou branch had contacted their daughter on 18 March.
He accused Ms Li of information trafficking and being a major suspect in a criminal group, demanding that she pay money to prove her innocence.
Ms Li, believing the fake officer, was told that failing to pay would result in up to one and a half years in prison.
The scammers maintained a relentless psychological grip on Ms Li by monitoring her movements in real-time and keeping her in near-constant video communication for four days.
Whenever she left her apartment, she was required to report her whereabouts in detail.
They also forced her to write a 500-word confession, where she begged the fake police to conduct a thorough investigation to clear her name.
She expressed her fear of being a “major suspect”, emphasising that she would never commit a crime or risk being separated from her family.
In response, Ms Li’s father has urged the Chinese Embassy in Malaysia to pressure the Malaysian police to investigate the case.
Featured image adapted from China Press.
