Women duped by Casanova conman

KUALA LUMPUR: He was young, handsome, suave, smooth and well-dressed.

Thus it was not surprising that when Benjamin, or Benny, turned up at Lee's office looking for a job, she was immediately attracted to him.

His romantic words and promises of marriage swept her off her feet and she even considered leaving her boyfriend when he asked her to.

But the fairy tale romance had a sour ending for the 26-year-old Lee. Her Prince Charming turned out to be nothing but a conman.

The 24-year-old Casanova not only sweet-talked her into bed but also swindled her of RM10,600.

That’s him: (From left) Lim, Sia and Lee pointing to Chong a picture of the Casanova, known as Benjamin or Benny, at Chong’s office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“He said he could not withdraw money and showed me his damaged ATM card. I lent him money and never got it back,'' said Lee.

While working with Lee, the man, who claimed he was from a rich family in Petaling Jaya, also cheated the company of RM20,000 when he sold its stock and pocketed the profits.

The company then lodged a police report and announced that he was no longer with the firm in a Chinese newspaper on March 16.

However, Lee is not Benjamin's only victim.

Two other women, who also claimed that Benny had tricked them, went with Lee to seek help from MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong at his office here yesterday.

“After convincing the women that he was seriously in love with them, he would sleep with them and then borrow money without returning a single cent,” Chong said.

The two other women, identified only as Lim and Sia, were also duped by the smooth operator who claimed to have studied in Canada.

“He was a smooth-talker and also used the broken ATM card tactic on me,” said 23-year-old Lim, who lost RM4,650.

“Benny was very convincing when he wanted to. Once, he even knelt in front of my house and cried for three hours just to ask for my forgiveness.”

Benny also tried to fool the women by exhibiting his generous side.

“He would give generous tips to waiters and buy expensive presents,” said Sia, 28.

When she confronted him about the long list of women's contact numbers in his phone book, he pounced on her and bit her several times on her cheek and arm.

Promising to marry her, Benny had told the spa therapist that he needed money for business investments. She lent him a total of RM4,150.

“After he had taken the money, he refused to answer my calls and totally cut contact with me,” added Sia.

All three women believed that Benny might have conned many others.

Chong described this Casanova problem as a “serious” one.

“I would like to urge young women out there to be more careful and not trust anyone blindly,” he said.

The Star