Man Pretended To Be A Technician To Fix A Woman's Water Filter In Kuchai Lama
The man knew her full name, phone number, and address.
By Tamara Jayne — 13 Mar 2019, 03:20 PM
A woman recently shared on Facebook about her encounter with a man who claimed to be a water filter technician
In her post, *Sally (name has been changed) revealed that someone pretending to be from Elken Malaysia called her to set an appointment to fix a water filter at her home in Kuchai Lama on Friday, 8 March.
After setting the appointment, a "technician" showed up yesterday at her condominium dressed in full Elken uniform
"The moment he opened my filter, he immediately asked if I [wanted] to buy a package for RM1k+, to which I declined," she wrote.
After that, the man told her that some components needed to be changed and that it was going to cost her RM245.
"I declined again because having been an Elken user before, I know that the products last long and I didn't believe that it would be broken so quickly," she added.
Much to her surprise, the man then proceeded to ask Sally for a service fee of RM80, even though she had been told that it would be free of charge
"Prior to this, I had confirmed with the phone rep that there would be no charges for servicing so I was quite surprised to hear this. He must have noticed a confused look on my face and before I could say anything, he responded 'OK I give you discount. RM60'," she wrote.
She immediately told him 'no', as she had already checked with Elken's headquarters about any additional charges.
Sally added that the man left in under 10 minutes after she explained to him that she was in the middle of work.
Feeling suspicious of the man, Sally decided to call Elken to make a complaint about the extra charges that he wanted.
Instead, she was shocked to discover that the company had no record of any appointment under that "technician" in the first place.
While she was on the phone with a representative from the customer service, Sally found out that Elken headquarters:
1. Had no record of any confirmation of water filter servicing at her unit
2. Had no record of the man in their list of technicians (she could only offer his phone number to them)
3. Could not provide an explanation as to why the person had access to her full name, phone number, and address
4. Also verified that the number that contacted her for service was not an official number of theirs.
Admitting that she should have checked the man's ID before allowing him into her home, Sally decided to share with others about how to differentiate between a fake and real technician
"I am counting my blessings that nothing happened to my home and to me but I still feel very uneasy at how this whole situation panned out," she wrote.
According to Sally, this is how to tell if an Elken technician is genuine:
1) They will be in a white and grey Elken uniform,
2) They will show you a Technician ID,
3) They will ALWAYS issue you an invoice to sign regardless of whether or not you paid for anything,
4) Elken will only call you from their HQ number which is 03-7985 9377 to set an appointment, and
5) You will receive an SMS to your mobile number upon confirmation of your appointment.
Sally told SAYS that the whole incident has since been brought up to Elken's customer service for them to lodge a police report
The company assured her that it is working to protect its customers' data and that they will send an actual technician to check if the "fake guy" had done anything to her water filter.