HONG KONG SCAM ALERT!
November 21, 2007 by Jan Shim
Listen up, what you’re about to read is my very recent first-hand encounter with a scammer from Hong Kong and hopefully you’ll do the right thing by warning your family and friends before these unscrupulous crooks have a field day with their next targets! Warning: long post!
Screenshot of Scammer’s web page.
Footer: Copyright 1987—2007. All Right Reserved.
Translation: Conning Right since 1987. If I have anything to do with this, it ends 2007 !!
Day 1—The Introduction
Just under a week ago, I received a phone call from a lady who claimed she represents Hong Kong TachAsia Leisure Centre and she had called me (at my home number!) to conduct a market survey. First thing I’d noticed was her strong mainland Chinese accent which she later said she’s from Taiwan and had just returned to her birth place, Hong Kong to work for this organisation. The questions she asked were basic enough to warrant an innocent knee-jerk response such as my name, marital status, profession and so forth–the typical answers to a typical market survey questionnaire. This was Day 1.
Day 2—The Follow Up
The same lady called again and pretended she didn’t get my name spelt correctly and she needed to ensure their ‘client’ database is accurate. After ’successful completion’ I was asked to (and she insisted that I) make a note of my lucky number A56118 and added that the company was doing this research to provide data which would lead up to the opening of their subsidiary office in Brunei. At this point, asking her questions concerning where this new office was going to open and when returned no useful or meaningful answer.
Day 3—Relentless
The caller persisted with yet another phone call and this time in her further attempt to create an atmosphere of trust and credibility, she said to watch a programme to air on one of the Astro channels between 5—6 pm. Their company allegedly hosted a grand lucky draw where Hong Kong celebrity Andy Lau would officiate the event (see the connection between my LUCKY number and where this is leading to?). I did not bother to find out if the programme was for real as I had more important things on my mind.
Day 4—Feeling Lucky
The caller delightfully rang (by now, I had gotten quiet sick of her voice and the frequency of her calls were like clock work—devilishly predictable). This is the best part, she announced that I was one of the very fortunate winners out of 5 other winners to have won second prize of B$67,500 cash. First prize was a BMW that had been won by someone in mainland China. She said there were two other winners in Brunei, one in Singapore and another in Malaysia all of whom had also won cash prizes of the same amount. What do you think happened next, after this alleged great news? She needed my bank account number so she could wire me my money. No harm here in giving her my account number. By now, this was becoming too good a news to be remotely true! Here, she ended the conversation with a heart-warming congratulatory note. She added (with a touch of envy) that Bruneians are so lucky to have a generous Sultan who looks after his people.
Day 5—The Catch!
She called to inform me that there is a temporary road-block to getting my money wired to Brunei. She continued that the Hong Kong government required all wire transfers be verified as a measure to curb the rampant money laundering cases (quite the irony!). In order to quickly facilitate this (this is where it got very interesting), I had to have a letter to certify that I was a legit winner and in order to obtain this letter, I would need to wire a sum equivalent to 4.3% of my prize money to a legal entity appointed by them. I was given two transfer options: Telegraphic Transfer or Western Union, the latter of which is quicker and I would receive the money sooner too! Sensing my hesitation and stammering between words, she said I needed to make a decision soon on order for her to secure a a busy legal representative … moments later, I agreed with the telegraphic transfer option and she was able to miraculously give me a name of an independent rep who isn’t associated to her organization in any way. At this point, I was close to puking at the extend of her lies which after almost a week, seemed no end!
Later part of Day 5 – Revelation
By lunch time, she had spilled more than she should have and at this juncture, in order to get my money (B$2,900) it had to be a bank account to transfer wire the money to and this individual was: TAN YAU BOON whose bank account number 0136 0010 3125 21 had an account with CIMB BANK in Malaysia. She also reminded me to call her (a Ms Lim Mei Hua at Hong Kong number 00852 30658450). Armed with this information, I immediately fired an email to CIMB Bank. Within the next business day I received the following response …
Dear Jan Shim,
Thank you for your email.
We wish to inform you that we have forwarded your email to our higher level management for further investigation (under suspected fraud case). Please be extra careful and do not transfer funds to any unknown parties.
We highly appreciate on your action to highlight this matter to us for our investigation and further action. Thank you.
Regards and have a great day.
and within a matter of hours following their first response, came …
Dear Jan Shim,
In relation to our previous email as below, we would like to notify you that this is a scam. Thus, please do not transfer any amount to the mentioned person (TAN YAU BOON) and other unknown parties.
Regards and have a great day.
By now, the lady kept calling to find out if I had made the remittance. I no longer entertain her calls and usually let the phone ring till it stopped. Isn’t it scary that you could be sweet-talked into being $2,900 worse off in just a week? With online phone listings and directory services, if anything, it has made these scams against unsuspecting individuals more rampant!
On Nov 24, 2007 UNITED DAILY NEWS picked up my story and translated it to Chinese with the hope of reaching the Chinese speaking community that the syndicate is targetting. Click on image to read the full article.
© 2007 United Daily News
** NEWSFLASH! A housewife in Malaysia was cheated of RM500,000 by a syndicate as reported by Berita Harian in the Malay language.
© 2007 Berita Harian
Additional information
- For a light-hearted version of the same scam with a slightly different modus operandi check out the graphic blog by Kenny Sia (link courtesy of resourceful blogger Jewelle)
- Thanks to an contact in Hong Kong who confirmed the government imposes no such requirement for outgoing funds, at least to her understanding, for the amount in question.
- A Chinese version of this post translated by UNITED DAILY NEWS to reach the Chinese community everywhere. Published on November 24, 2007
Set her up! Great story so far. Cant wait to hear how it plays out.
Is there any FBI equivilant or scam specialist police over there?
Good one. Let’s hope all will read and learn from this.
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptHONG KONG SCAM ALERT! November 21, 2007 by Jan Shim Listen up, what you’re about to read is my very recent first-hand encounter with a scammer from Hong Kong and hopefully you’ll do the right thing by warning your family and friends before these unscrupulous crooks have a field day with their next target! [Warning: long post ahead] [IMG scam.jpg] Day 1—The Introduction Just under a week ago, I received a phone call from a lady who claimed she represents Hong Kong TachAsia Leisure Centre [...]
We get that crap a lot in the States … just have to use common sense and tell the annoying person NO THANKS!! of course, I have learned from the past especially with international business transactions… GRRR!!
This is the common tactic used in Vancouver as well. There is no free lunch in this world. Jan is nice to share this story with everyone. Please take note and inform your elderly at home.
@ Jenison
Yes, it’s called CRIME SHIM INVESTIGATION (CSi)
Oh man… Way cool, Jan…
I wonder why such low scams still happen… and surprisingly, some ppl do fall for it.. But hey, Jan, great work and thanks for letting us know… I think this syndicate is targeting on Asian countries, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei…
Singapore is getting a few phone scams cases lately also….think twice in future about leaving your mobile contact number details in lucky draw tickets, etc….
你的真實故事和我友人幾乎一樣.
和你說：就是有人相信她的說法.
貪心做遂.
I heard those cases happened in other countries too but i never know that it will happen also in Brunei!! Gosh.. should be more aware of these calls in the future!!
This has been going on for a while now, and this is the most recent case that I know that they had the gall to call up people and entice them that way. My father received an SMS from Indonesia that told him that he won something from a TV station there. I immediately told him that it was indeed a scam, and to never trust anyone contacting out of the blue to give you money.
I have two or three such messages in my phone, and I was wondering of such a way to ‘kena-kan’ these scammers.
Scams like these have been around but the tactics they used has evolved. They are getting better!
The typical age group that fall into these traps are usually the older folks. It was in the news in Singapore a few weeks back and now we are more cautious.
I personally have brought this up as a topic over dinner and warned my folks and let them know that people are being cheated of and remind them to be cautious. So i guess you can do likewise if you have old folks at home.
Personally….I feel that it something is too good to be true, it probably is. I don’t think people go around giving away money because they have too much
(People can never have too much money)!!! 
@ Jaslyn
Who knows what goes on in this world anymore?! The world we live in is politcally, economically and socially messed up and like many level headed people I know, I live my life one day at a time and in moderation. It’s too easy to fall prey to these crooks if you’re deep in debt and are constantly looking for a way out!
@ Jessie
We’ve often read about this in our email and you wouldn’t think this could ever happen to you. Until it does! It’s very different when you become a target. Hanging up the phone would be too easy, going along with them, seeing how low they stoop is far more interesting.
The lady has not given up at all. She still calls my house each day and this time my Filipina helper answers and they can engage in a duck and chicken conversation for all I care. Failing to get me at home, she would ring my mobile which I gladly ignore. She’s come so far and is under the impression that this victim is just one Telegraphic Transfer away from victory!
My husband had a similar call from someone who spoke with a strong mainland chinese accent a few weeks ago. She claimed to be doing a marketing survey like the tactic she used with you. Fortunately, the conversation ended because my husband was not very fluent in chinese. Othewise, he would be one of the victims of the scam. Always remember nothing comes easy!
Yo bro, this lady calling me also…haha..1st time she cal me i pretend i dun understand mandarin and english and she hang up..
second time she cal up again i say i was reporter and i want 2 do an interview wh her and ask for their co. details etc…then she hang up…
i wait for d 3rd time cal, but since 2nd time she cal me and hang up, then there is no more 3rd time..haha..i’m lucky..
Thanks for sharing this U.Jan.
This happened to 1 of my friends too, couple of months ago. Amazingly and shamelessly, the “lady” happens to call again 2 days ago, beginning the same conversation with “Do you know how to speak chinese?”(in mandarin) It happens that the best way to handle this is just hang up the phone… and pretend you didn’t receive any call…
About the lady being cheated…. sorry to say that no one is to blame but herself….. someone who owns RM500K still wants to hope that RM1.2M to fall down from the sky like THAT??? greedy ma…!
Scammer nowadays use high level psychology jutsu i say…. It’s just not easy to not fall into the trap…. be alert people… Remember.. there is NO, again NO free lunch in this world.
I agree Christina’s “there is NO free lunch in this world…” statement.. You want to achieve something, you have to earn it. I suppose the LOVE of money becomes the root of evil… NOT “Money is evil”….
These scammers know that there will still be ppl around who have GREED for money… so they hope to target on these individuals. It’s sad that how these scammers have the intellect but aint willing to work and sweat to earn their keep. They rather do the shortcut method..
I think this is also a good incident to teach the younger ones so that they can learn and are exposed to such frauds.. Teach them to be more street smart.
Thanks for sharing Jan.
I always wonder why people would fall for such a case, still, like you all said, there’s always people who would fall for it, probably 1 in a million. Sigh.
About those sms, god, I receive like 10 of ‘em in a week last time, ROFL. xD
I have the same call last Tuesday, she gave her name as 庄丽丽, caliming they were doing marketing research on opening resort in Tutong (? of all places in Brunei?). She gave me the luckly number A56118.
The next day she called back to ask me to watch a live program on 亚洲卫视 between 5-6pm the next day on the opening ceremony with Andy Lau in HK which I did but there was no sush progam on air.
On Saturday I noticed my hand phone has an international missed call, I guess it’s probably them. Lucky me!
Thanks Jan for the revealing the scam.
I’m glad you did the right thing. The people behind these scams and the syndicate running them have no conscience and can be merciless. I hope you are able to forewarn your friends and relatives about this. It’s bad enough that they invade your privacy with these unnecessary calls, they attempt to take away your dignity too.
I would have very conveniently hung up the phone, ignore all their calls till they gave up but the thought of them preying on other individuals had me enraged! These are folks who (in Jaslyn’s words) “have the intellect but aint willing to work and sweat to earn their keep. They rather do the shortcut method.. “
This sounds like a version of the Nigerian scam. I hope that your readers heed your warning and be mindful of these scams. Thanks for the post.
Jan, got simiar calls on my handphone. She tried three times. Right the first time, my son, who speaks Chinese pissed her off….hahahhaha
The second time, I told her she got the wrong number, when in between the two calls, there had been some missed calls!
The third time I answered her, I shouted at her and told her to get lost. Seems to work that way.
Similar scams occur in internet mails, when you were told you won million of dollars in a lottery. But when actually did I buy those ticekts??
Famous one is the British Airways lottery. Wow! BA had not made enough money and decided to operate lottery? Really made me laugh.
You can check this link for samples of those emails:
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/lotteryscam_BA.php
Here are some of the more common clues that you will see in scams:
- EMAIL notification? Real lotteries NEVER notify the winners: If you hold a winning lottery ticket, you notify the lottery. Therefore, ALL emails that say you won are scams!
You didn’t buy a ticket? Then how could you win? Ask yourself, where does the money for the prizes come from?
- Email address draw? There is no such thing as a “computer draw system” or “computer ballot draw” of email addresses. It does not exist, no matter how many scammers tell you it does.
- Sent from a free email account?: The return email addresses are free Yahoo, Excite or Hotmail, AIM, Gmail, and other free email accounts,
- Don’t tell anyone? “For security reasons” you’re not allowed to talk to anyone about it (especially the police or consumerfraudreporting.org!) - which ought to be odd since lotteries thrive on publicity!
- Uneducated lotteries? The emails contain poor grammar, punctuation, strange syntax and phrasing and loads of misspellings.
- Pay to collect winnings? You NEVER have to pay to collect winnings from a legitimate lottery. You pay taxes AFTER you you receive the winnings. There are NO other fees (taxes, insurance, delivery, etc. are part of a lotteries operating costs, and are NOT taken from winnings).
- U.S. Laws? It is illegal under U.S. federal law to play ANY foreign lottery from the United States. Many other countries have similar laws. for example, you must be a Spanish resident to play the El Gordo lottery.
- Similar names? Since scammers simply invent new names for their fake lottery scams, it is more accurate to say that if you do not see the lottery on the list of legitimate lotteries, it is probably a scam.
Jan,
Thanks for the info. All these while I knew these type of scams were sent via email or sms, didn’t know they actually called up now. It used to be sms from China and I was asked to translate it for my non-chinese literate colleagues. So now I need to warn people at home not to answer to those phone call.
This lady is calling me now!! Same tactic!!! Ask me to do survey first den ask me to watch a program and said i won $60000!! She asked for my bank account number and i gave her!! OMG!! I wanna nab this scammers!!
John,
The next time she calls, tell her firmly that you’re not a wee bit impressed to be short-changed. Ask her why your friends (emphasis on not one but a few whom you know) in Brunei got offered B$67,500. Maybe it’s Gullible Suckers Tax (GST)?
Hello there~! Thankz for this blog entry! I was also called up by this lady and faced the same situation as you! I gave her my bank account no. and was so afraid that she will hack my bank account, so i transferred all my money out of my bank the next moment i put down the phone. I think she will be calling me again as she still have not told me about the remittance. I was thankful that i came across your blog and knew this scam! Thankz for the information!
And we should really learn that there is no free lunch in this world…to those who may come across this issue, just reject or hang up the call if you come across this lady!
Million Thankz to u!
The money in your bank is safe! Unless the phone calls are made by someone inside your bank, rest assured that giving out your account number does not compromise its security. I appreciate the unnecessary worry and stress dealing with these criminals.
Jan,
Spoke to my parents this morning. Apparently calls was made to our house in Lumut. But it was quite funny as described by dad. Call was answered by my grand-uncle (old man with hearing problem), he passed the phone to my dad and said he couldn’t understand anything at all when the lady was speaking in Mandarin for quite a while. So the lady basically hanged up by the time dad answered the call.
Ohya they don’t just call at home. Mum received the call at work as well. So I guess they just try any landline they could get hold of.
These callers are very persistent and talk fast to the point they do not allow you a chance to talk unless when asking if you understood what she said (and are waiting for you to spell out your account number). They are good but not good enough and their methods leave plenty of holes. They create an atmosphere of professionalism by asking you repeatedly if you understand the position you’re in, what the caller say is clear and they insist that you understand them every step of the way.
Together, we can and will beat them!
I am just curious how the hell they got those number? Randomly or what? Our house number are not listed in the Telbru directory also. They are just trying their luck on the number I guess. Don’t they need to pay for the phone bill (IDD number)?
See if you can find your number on the Brunei Yellow Pages online! You may be surprised just how exposed we are without even realising it. I found my own listing including full residential address. Now isn’t that scary?! As long you have a registered number, you are listed somewhere!
IDD used to mean International Direct Dial. Today, International has been replaced with Internet and you have a service called SKYPE. I imagine in China there are plenty of similar service providers of “IP” telephony for next to nothing.
I agree with you. Internet is useful yet not safe. It’s difficult to maintain your privacy on the net especially.
You are right. In china the international calling can be really cheap. I used to spend so much buying those calling card at a cheaper rate and able to make long hours of calls.
All these scams from China really make people having bad impression on China. The way they try to get money out of people is really scary and annoying.
I’ve updated this post with a link to the translation in Chinese by United Daily News published on Nov 24, 2007.
http://shimworld.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/hk-scam-alert.jpg
Dear All,
Currently, this case is applying to me now, the girl is contiune to call me from 9:00 am, and my stage is that she wants me account number#, I try to avoid to answer “private” call, and today Vancouver number# show up and answer the me, it’s her again… God… when will over?!, I try to say I have talk to police and she didn’t really card…………….,,, any suggestion? does RCMP or FBI can do anything? those crimes have to stop..
You’re right, these crimes have to stop but they won’t. They spread quicker than you can spread butter on your bread and they are virtually untraceable unless they are dumb enough to run their operations from the same location. All they need is internet access, pull up your phone number from an internet white pages, and dial that number repeatedly using an internet phone - super cheap and effortless to do!
Don’t bother with the authorities, just use the most effective method - HANG UP - and make sure you alert your family and friends that this has happened to you and make sure they don’t get targetted next.
All the best!
I received a similar call as well but the company names changed. I entertained at first but looks like I should go to the police. I asked for their website but was led to a website on a Mortgage company instead of a Electronic company. Lets hope I can nap these people, they even give me a phone number to call back!
Francis,
I think they use internet voip phone, because when they call me the number always different. I don’t know if the police want to be involved with this kind stuff.
Thanks to online banking security, these scammers have no choice but to expose themselves by giving out traceable bank account numbers. Talk about low tech compromising their high tech means of ruining someone’s day. They can run but they cannot hide. Their days are numbered and opportunities lost when we proactively inform others of this malicious intent.
Hi Jan,
Have been an avid yet anonymously reader to your posting since beginning of last year. Was attracted by your photography skills and your descriptive entries enhance with powerful vocabulary.
Well, seeing so many comments for this particular entry, am wondering if any of the dudes and babes had encounter being call back and get scolded (with vulgarities) by this Ms Lim Mei Hua (Yes & no kidding. This name was used on me in Singapore) or her other correspondences?
Or am I the unlucky one to get such responses?
I have received this call 2 weeks ago. Same introduction and same follow-up in 2 days. Except that I “won” the prize on 3rd day of S$67k. It had immediately trigger my memory on this entry. On the 4th day afternoon, I exposed her scam. But what followed by was nightmare. She called every 5-10mins interval and scold vulgarities and hanged up, all done in 3 seconds! I can’t even switch off my mobile phone as it was used for business contacting purposes. Till now I still do get silence call every now & then. Wondering if its her doings..
Any suggestions or word of advice for me?
Lovellynn,
If the same lady is still scamming folks she must quickly be running out of steam and from the sound of it, patience too! You’re the first one I learn to have been scolded by the perpetrator so this makes you special in my books.
There’s very little or nothing you can do if your network isn’t registering the caller’s ID—can’t see, can’t block! It doesn’t hurt to talk to the police or network operator to see if it’s actually possible. I like to think that every call has some kind of digital signature or IP address especially those coming from an internet phone. It’s disturbing to know the lengths they go and when they cannot get your money, they go that extra mile to make your life miserable!
Keep us posted and I wish you all the best. And, thanks for your appreciation. It means a lot.
Hello all~~ today i was received the phone call frm the china gal~ the story was totaly same like u guys mention here~ i still entertain her~ i stil acting i know nothing abt this scam, any related government or police in charge this case that i can contact?
Shane,
I suggest you ignore her calls and wait it out till she eventually gives up. It is pointless in my opinion to let her control your day and time and for you to take matters to the authorities where it may be outside their jurisdiction to do anything useful to help you.
Jan Shim
Helo~ you know wat~? is that nothing we can do even we know some1 r cheating here? that was pretty sad~ like no law in the world~ hope HK government will take this case seriously`~
Just for review, Here was the phone number that i was received frm the caller scammer~
00-852-31771570 given by Ms. Yu
+886227060110 display frm my cellar fon n called by Ms.Chang
How come they had alot different phone number? any idea? steal line?
You are spending too much time on this matter, just as I expected you would. She and her associates are not worth our precious time to loose sleep over. By getting all worked up and upset feeling confused and lost, you are giving her the pleasure of taking away your freedom. Drop this before you sink into this too deep.
Jan Shim
Maybe i spendin too much time on this~ but just dropin this scam away is same like u r know some1 cheating but u just ignore it coz it not hapen to u~~~ So far many aunty got trap by this scam~ there r very pity lor~ Hope more people will know more abt this case n not trap by this scammer~ hmm~~
Hi Shane,
I believe the lady is using those IP phonecard to make the international call. Or yet she got those landlind with IP phone facilities. Those phonecard or phone features can let her make international call at pretty cheap rate.
The international contact number she gave you +852 xxxxxxxx does seem like a hong kong number while the other number +886 xxxxx is a taiwan number…. So I guess she is making use of internet ip number may be….
What you should be doing is informing your friends, relatives and colleagues about it in anyway you can and let them know that the scam you read about on SHIMWORLD has just happened to you!
Enlighten them by linking them to this blog post. Their operation is beyond what you or the first level authorities can handle anyway.
Drifting Cloud
Thx for explaining~
Jan Shim
Ya~ i just forward sms to all my fren n family~ Anyway this is 1st time i entertain those scammers coz they very pro in acting~ after that i do research on internet~ i SAW many blogs are SAME story like the scammer caller told me~ Anyway i stil entertain them~ see what will hapen~ i wish i could record all the conversation between me n that scammer caller~
Hi Jan and all faithful readers,
Since neither we nor any authorities can control such scam, it would really be the best way to keep informing our family, relatives and friends every now and then in all ways and means.
I’ve reported this matter to the police and was informed that they have received quite a number of reports on such cases. The higher management personnel are looking into it and also planning to collaborate with the respective medias to help to warn citizens of such incidents in all ways, thru TV broadcast, reading materials and radio broadcasting for all races. Hopefully in this way, it will create a wider circle of awareness and keep these scammers at bay (or at least stop their operation for a time being).
Shane, its really no point entertaining these people, unless you wanna go through what I’ve been thru. Being harrassed by them.
Thank God! I was one step close to losing S$3125… was cautioned by the post office lady who kindly advised me to think twice.. and i stepped out. I believe i will be recieving more calls from this lady tomorrow and the days after.. they are really persistent! I’m glad I came across your site!
they are really really professional nowadays. While talking to me, she actually had another phone coming in..and she had actually “talked” to this other party as if the other person had recieved the money and is thanking her for it!
gosh!
[...] There is a detailed account here by Jan Shim over at Shimworld.com ==> http://shimworld.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/hong-kong-scam-alert/ [...]
I live in Australia - Perth
My dad got a call like 2 days ago from a man from hongkong and he said my dad won $1,000,000 hong kong dollars by entering a competition for some sort of tv or something in canberra and he needed my dads bank details. my dad decided to put the money on my grandma’s account who lived in hong kong so it was easier.
So he gave him my grandmas bank number and my dads birthdate and liscence no. Can that person still hack into the bank account and take money?
And today i was looking through the asia times and it was talking about a telephone scam like the one i was talking about and howcrime stoppers said it was like a scammer in hong kong with the name of burk or sumthing?
One scam does not make me an expert and I certainly won’t pretend to be one. The whole idea of scamming is that they somehow convince the victim to wire money to them. Giving them an account number + birth date + license number is counter productive. Besides banks are secure and fairly hard or impossble to hack by your average Joe.