Yesterday, I received an email from reader Chean Chung and the content is so disturbing that I feel obliged to blog about it.
It’s about a well planned scam conducted professionally with highly suspicious intention. The methodology used is to strike immediate fear into the victim by claiming the call is from Malaysia High Court, reminding the "victim" to attend court hearing for alleged criminal case and subsequently asking for the victim’s full name, IC Number as well as bank account number.
Fearing the repercussion, a report was lodged at police station and surprisingly, he was told that more than 20 reports of similar incident has been reported. Nevertheless, he wasn’t informed of subsequent action taken by the police, remember the latest increment?
Meanwhile, just when you think you’re be smart enough not to fall into such trap, I’d urge you to read his email below which I decide to publish in verbatim with the author’s permission to serve as a precautionary measure.
I received a mysterious call at about 12p.m this afternoon. The recorded voice claimed to call from Malaysia High Court and it reminded me to attend a court hearing in June, due to some criminal case related to the illegal loans. I was puzzled by the call, as I have no friend in loan shark business, and I didn’t involve anything related to that. Out of curiosity and nervous, I pressed “9” for further inquiries.
A lady picked up the call. After getting my FULL NAME and IC NUMBER, she confirmed that my case is on the waiting list. I need to defend myself on the high court in the designated date. She also added that my case was investigated by an inspector from Bukit Jalil called Mr. Yew Woon Hwa. I replied promptly that I didn’t recall any incidents or cases that had to make myself on the court. She agreed to forward the message to the inspector, and reminded me that the inspector might call me to assist in the investigation.
THIS IS STRANGE. My instinct told me that something must be wrong. I opened my browser and googled for “high court Malaysia + Bukit Aman”. Ha, those findings surprised me. A blog reported that it was a scam (http://jeelife.com/2007/05/15
/scam-warning/). Coincidently, phone rang at this time and I picked it up. Who else can it be? The inspector wanted to me be cooperative and share some information that I know to him. I insisted to note down his name and phone number. He told me he is that YEW WOON HWA, inspector from Bukit Aman. The phone number is 03-25091106.
Immediately, I called Bukit Aman to verify this information. I am right. This person doesn’t exist at all in the inspector lists. The receptionist also told me that she received a lot of inquiries regarding this. Then, I asked why don’t they take action? She replied and said she is not in-charge of logging report. She advised me to go to the police station nearby. As a result, I went to Sea Park Police Station at SS2 and logged a report there. The police told me that I am not the only casualty. Sea Park has accumulated more than 20, and Kelana Jaya station has about 10 similar cases. I was shocked. The scam is professional and tricky. They exploited your fear by hoping that you will reveal all your information including bank accounts and IC numbers to them. I have no ideas on how many victims have fall into the trap. But it is still ongoing. I’m stupid enough to tell my IC, but lucky enough to keep my bank account numbers. Please, be careful next time when receive any anonymous calls.
Warmest Regards,Chean Chung
If you encountered similar experience as mention above, please drop me an email or your feedback at the comment section, in which the author is considering further action on the case.
"It’s part of the social responsibility," he said.
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These are the parasites of our society who try to cheat others by striking fear of getting on the wrong side of the law into law-abiding (but blur blur) citizens. Bukit Aman should take a more proactive role in eradicating crimes like this. When the police keep accumulating reports without action, the criminals believe they can operate with impunity. :(
Now that the police have a good salary adjustment, let’s see some action!
hi, i just received a similar call to my company line, it is actually a recorded lady voice from high court asking to attend a court hearing. it actually got disconnected halfway, then the phone rang again, i picked it up and answer, after the end of the recording, u can press 1 to repeat or 9 to speak to the person regarding the issue. i pressed 9 and a chinese accent lady speak and says ‘this is the high court’, i asked what was her name and she keep repeating, ‘this is the high court’.. i pressed further for her name and she told me her name, but it was not clear, very heavy chinese accent.. i said, this is a scam, and i told her that i will trace the phone number she called from.. she hangs up the phone..
i hope people out there will be aware that this scam is goin around..
Someone at my office received a similar call about about 12pm today and asked me to help. I was throughly suspicious from the start as the scam artist continually tried to exert pressure and fear on me if I do not cooperate in helping or supporting his case. I asked for all their details, including the name and serial number of the police. When I asked about his rank, he was stumped and just didn’t answer.
Then I just asked more and more questions until it came to a point that the so called police officer were out of answers. Then I told him, I am not willing to give my personal details and would go to the police station personally to check on the matter and hanged up.
I nearly picked up the phone to call the police when I thought I’d google this up using "loan shark scam Malaysia" as keywords. I found this blog and the series of events described are identical to what I experiecenced. Thank you for sharing this information.
I think everyone should always take a step back when they receive a call or is approached by a stranger that claims that they are from some authority and tries to intimidate them using that authority. Never give in to fear and always be suspicious. Ask as many questions as possible and give no answers, especially your personal information. Sooner or later, your senses and instinct will tell you that its nothing more than as scam artist and you will find a way to end the episode.
Hihi.. I just received that call just now. Would like to share, here goes:
That same calling experience, after giving my IC #, and she asked for my name’s spelling, after spelling half way, my "instinct" awaken, so I decided to give her incomplete spelling of my name. Same experience, that "male-police from Bukit Aman" call and something to freeze all my accounts… Then I asked him again my hearing date, he gave me and then hanged off… That’s my experience. : )
Would like to know, what do info of my name, Ic #, and name of bank can do wonder in cheating out my $$$? These are the info I gave. They didn’t asked for account number leh…
Why I sense something wrong?
The call is in Chinese. And the person’s voice in pure China Chinese.
I was thinking, if someone called from Malaysia Government, shouldn’t it be pure Malaysia Malay?
That’s all. Hope everyone is alright?
hi, a friend of mine received a letter from Spain (Aspana, I think) announcing that she has won a lottery amounting to Euro 0.5 million.
She was asked to provide the details of her bank account so that they can transfer the lottery money.
I told her it’s a scam. Who do we report to for such cases ?