Malaysian Guy Gets Scammed Of RM9,000 While Trying To Buy A Phone He Found Online
He wrote a Facebook post to warn others of the scammer's modus operandi.
By May Vin Ang — 25 Sep 2019, 06:43 PM
A man from Kuala Lumpur was scammed of RM9,000 while trying to buy a Huawei P30 Pro from a seller he found on an online marketplace
Jin Wai Choo made a Facebook post about the incident yesterday, 24 September, where he warned others of the scammer's modus operandi.
He attached photos of the scammer he met through Mudah.my.
In his post, he also expressed his disappointment with the banking system in Malaysia, which he claimed was not fast enough to block his credit card in an emergency situation.
Choo wrote that he was interested to buy a Huawei P30 Pro listed for RM2,800 on Mudah.my by a Felix Tan, and contacted the seller
They agreed to meet at the Starbucks in Solaris Dutamas on Tuesday, 24 September, at 2pm for the transaction to be paid by card.
Choo met with a Chinese man in his late 20s to early 30s who brought along a blue bag containing a sealed iPhone XS box meant for another customer.
The seller said that he would need to go back to his office to collect the Huawei phone and process the payment with the credit card terminal in his office.
Choo initially refused to hand over his credit card and suggested to follow him to his workplace, but the seller said that his boss would not allow outsiders into the office.
The seller assured Choo that he would be quick and that he would leave his sealed iPhone XS and credit card with him as a guarantee that he would come back
At that point, Choo decided to trust the seller and gave his credit card.
However, when the seller was 'at the office', he said that he could not process the payment when Choo did not receive an OTP code.
The seller then called Choo for his credit card pin, and Choo, who was in a hurry to get back to work and wanted to settle things fast, gave it to him.
"This is a mistake on my side, and I know most of you would think how stupid it was to give your pin," Choo explained in his post.
"But in this case, bearing in mind I'm holding the iPhone and 'his' credit card, I felt secured enough at that point."
Choo began to suspect that he had been scammed when he received a notification from his bank about a withdrawal of RM1,500 at an ATM, instead of a transaction
He immediately called the bank's hotline to get his card blocked, but in the time it took for him to get through the automated operator, two more withdrawals of RM1,500 had already been made.
When he finally reached a customer service representative and was in the process of getting his identity verified, another withdrawal of RM1,500 was made.
In the five to six minutes it took to call and block the card, six transactions were made, coming up to a total of RM9,000.
Choo has since filed a police report and also realised that the credit card he was holding with the name Felix Tan could belong to the previous victim
He found out that other people on the online forum Lowyat.net have been scammed by the same person.
Choo further wrote about three things he would like to point out from the incident:
- Why credit card limits are set at a high rate of RM9,300 by default,
- Why don't all banks prioritise customers who want to block their stolen cards, and
- Why his bank did not give him a call to confirm that he was withdrawing large amounts of money in a short span of time.
SAYS has reached out to CIMB for a statement on the incident.
