Deputy Finance Minister Chua Tee Yong's mother did not suspect something amiss when the house phone rang this morning.

As the line was unclear, she requested that the person call her mobile phone instead.

But when the call came, the mobile phone number belonged to Tee Yong but the voice at the other end was not his.

The caller claimed that the owner of the mobile phone had been detained with 2kg of heroin in his car and that it was an offence punishable by death.

Relating the incident, Tee Yong's father, former MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek ( left ), revealed that his wife got the call around 11am.

"My son was then in Pahang, where he was chairing a meeting," he told Malaysiakini .

"Naturally, my wife did not believe the person. He claimed that Tee Yong was arrested with several others and cannot be released on bail.

"He then asked my wife to come to the Jalan Hang Tuah police station in Kuala Lumpur," he added.

Chua said when his wife insisted on speaking to their son, the person at the other end warned that the conversation must be in Bahasa Malaysia or English.

"The phone was then given to someone else who pretended to be Tee Yong. He was crying and pleading for help, saying he would otherwise be thrown into jail.

"My wife knew that it was not Tee Yong," he added, stating that the phone could have been hacked by an extortion racket.

Meanwhile, Tee Yong, who lodged a police report this afternoon in Putrajaya, expressed concern over the protection of personal data.

"This person called the house first. As the line was not clear, my mum told him to call her handphone and gave her number.

"When she gave the number, the person said the line was registered under my name. This is true, I pay her phone bills.

"But how did this person know who the line is registered under?" he asked.

Tee Yong said the police informed him that in the past, such groups would normally claim that a person has been kidnapped and demand ransom.

"The police themselves have not heard of this new tactic," he added, noting that the culprits must have been in the dark as to whose number they had cloned.