I would like to share with you what I have heard recently about a victim of scratch-and-win scam which, if you have been following news closely, the scam is nothing new in our country as it is quite common nowadays. We have news that people were schemed, cheated, and duped and by the time they know it, it is too late. Anyway, I hope you all out there be extra careful when approached by strangers. The thing is while under normal circumstances, we all thought it would be unlikely one would be fallen prey - can you believe those prizes come as easy as just scratch and you win! 100% win all the time. But many have been fallen prey and it makes you ask - Why? How come? How could this happen? Is Malaysian generally gullible? The scam has been around for 15 years! It is the greedy nature of human or there is something else that makes the scheme so ‘successful’?
The victim was a young female friend. She was making her way to Pudu Raya to take a bus to hometown. While on her way, she was stopped by two strangers – Chinese, male – and she was presented with scratch-and-win coupon. One guy was cajoling her into scratching the coupon while the other was standing behind her. She scratched and she won and then the coaxing continued to the extent that she finally convinced that she did win something special. In order to claim the prizes, she followed one of the young guys to his office by taxi. The office is located in Old Klang road Kuchai Lama.
She was brought to the office and there are two office staff – one male and one female – waiting for her and she was being cajoled into signing an agreement with the company of which she has to pay RM5,600 advertising fees in exchange for the prizes that she won. To cut the story short, she did what most people would think they would not do - She signed it.
She did not carry much cash with her at that time so they conveniently suggested to her that there is an ATM machine downstairs. Now, you have to understand that we are talking about a young female person who do not spend money unnecessarily and has a long history of saving all her hard-earned money into bank account. A young female person who is not naïve with her young age and who has been taught not to trust complete strangers. She followed a young guy to downstairs to ATM machine. Withdrawn RM4,000 from her bank account and in the process, shown the young guy her account balance and tell the young guy that this is the maximum that she can withdrawn because of the daily withdrawal limit. She wanted to call her sister to get the balance RM1,600 but the young guy conveniently told her that that is no need to trouble your sister and he would pay for her the RM1,600. I am so damn sure this young fellow will go to heaven for his 'good' deed.
While in the office, she was told to pay RM80 transport charges for the prizes to be delivered to the designated address. She paid it. At the same time, the young man who was standing behind her when she was approached in Pudu Raya asked her for an Ang Pow for such good luck he has brought her. She gave him RM50.00 and then another RM50 as the first RM50 was not enough according to that young guy.
She was promised that the prizes would be delivered but a copy of signed agreement was not even given to her. When this was done, a young guy accompanied her to downstairs and got her a cab. While she was in the taxi on the way from Kuchai Lama to Pudu Raya, she regained her consciousness and knew there and then that something was not right. She called her brother-in-law and asked for help and then she called her sister.
She made a u-turn to the Kuchai Lama office and waited for her brother-in-law and sister to arrive.
Again, to cut the story short, they managed to get a copy of the agreement and there was argument ensued on dubious contents of the agreement signed and et cetera… the thing is, the scammers that they were dealing are no average human being. In the best interest of personal safety, they left the office without any success in recovering the RM4,000 from the scammers. It is believed that these scammers have backup nearby and they are not the type of people that we want to mess up with.
It puzzles me to think that how easy one can be fallen prey to something that obviously a scam but then I realized that these victims are not fully conscious or not in the right frame of mind as the incident unfolds right before them. They know what is happening – who they meet, that they are signing an agreement and giving out money to a stranger – but yet they easily comply with the requests of the stranger. Somebody says it is the greediness and black magic or jumpi that make the scam works. Something must have been ‘done’ to the victim to confuse judgment but yet not totally in confusion.
I don’t know how it works but I am sharing this story with you so that you are alert whenever come into contact with strangers, lucky draw, scratch-and-win, and whatever scams that you may come across. You may not believe in spell, jumpi or whatever we call it but it does not hurt you a bit to avoid strangers as much as possible so that you are not ‘spelled’.
Google the term scratch and win scam, you will find stories of victim and the modus operandi of the scam. Let us be wise and be alert. Don’t be too sure that you can outsmart those scammers easily. Well, there have been victims from professions that you think would not be easily fooled and coned.
If you are wondering what happened to the girl. Police report was made and complaint lodged with tribunal (Kementerian Hal-Ehwal Pengguna). According to my research in the internet, good chance you can get back the money through tribunal. I hope the girl would get back her hard-earned money at the end of the day.
On the other hand, why do you think that scratch-and-win scams can never be eradicated from
To those scammers out there, there is such thing called bad karma. Let the bad karma be fallen on you!
No comments:
Post a Comment