Listen up, what you’re about to read is my first-hand encounter with a scam artist 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: extremely long post!
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 targeting. Click on image to read the full article.
** NEWSFLASH! A housewife in Malaysia was cheated of RM500,000 by a syndicate as reported by Berita Harianin the Malay language.
Additional information
- 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 Nov 24, 2007
SHIMWORLD 
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?
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Good one. Let’s hope all will read and learn from this.
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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!!
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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.
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@ Jenison
Yes, it’s called CRIME SHIM INVESTIGATION (CSi) 🙂
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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….
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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.
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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!!
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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.
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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)!!! 😛
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@ 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!
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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!
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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..
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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.
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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.
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Thanks for sharing Jan.
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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
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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.
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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.. “
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!!
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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)?
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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)?
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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.
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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.
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I’ve updated this post with a link to the translation in Chinese by United Daily News published on Nov 24, 2007.
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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..
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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`~
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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?
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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.
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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~~
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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….
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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.
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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~
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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.
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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!
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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?
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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.
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I´m Henrimark, from Brazil.
I think I have been recently object of scam, from a company at Alibaba.com, which was called Korg Hong Kong…they promised musical instruments of top brands. Since I sent money they are postponing the shipment and I am sure they will not send it.
Names you have to avoid: Shung Tia, Eliasu Sulemana, Baffour Edmund…
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Henrimark,
Thanks for filling us in on your unfortunate incident. I contacted the International Service Center of Alibaba.com in an attempt to draw their attention to your situation. The email I wrote …
Sadly, instead of addressing the issues that’s clearly stated in the opening paragraph, a representative by the name Neo Zhou, in his email response, said …
In my further attempt to clarify the matter, I wrote back and have not heard from them since. It saddens me that the internet is used for fraudulent trade practices and there’s increasing evidence of people victimised by such contrived acts of deceipt.
On 2nd June 2008, Radio New Zealand website posted news of a student in Auckland who was scammed out of $46,000!! The same news was also reported the New Zealand Herald …
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Hi Jan Shim
I thank you in your help.
Alibaba deceived me too, because they just do not answer my emails. I tried the Hong Kong Police, but they say that my local police must ask them a investigation regarding to this issue.
I have the names, the email, telephone number, but not any local help. I am sad that other people may be scammed with no trial of stopping these burglars, and also sad for the trembled confidence I have now in having new business relationship with China market.
Together with the opened market in China, It should exist a great “escrow system” to protect buyers, that is, “no goods, no money”. Let´s work until the end, hardly, but honestly !
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hey Henrimark,
i was about to order eletric drums through ALI BABA site from a guy who claimed that he is from Parson’s music and he whole sells the product.
i did not believe him and told him that (his prices were so low and his way was weird and fishy), i am from egypt so i am an expert in such scams (used to happen here a lot in more twisted ways, lol).
Next day my dad wakes me up and there he is, He got my number from ALI BABA, asking for my email so that he send all documents for ” MY REST OF MIND”.
I did send and recieved a very strange looking certificate that i did not believe. I stayed in touch and acted as if the trade is gonna happen (i still did not confirm anythng). Next morning i find him sending an invoice and an address to send the money 2 through WESTERN UNION.
Now…… it was definitly fishy he typed the invoice and the packages ready 2 be shipped without even my confirm. Business is never done like that.
Any way… what made me find this page s that i searched for the address name he sent to me( his accountant) and guess what……. he was: “Mr. Baffour Edmund,” the guy u stated in ur early post.
Now i am scamming him myself, canceling a unit, ordering another and he’s just waiting 4 his money that he’ll never get. 😀
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Ahmed
thank God I could be helpful in reporting their names….
As I reported this fraud to Korg Japan, Alibaba cleaned their names, but I see they created a new company and are trying to steal more money from people.
I regret that Hong Kong police cannot get these people, and Alibaba is still accepting virtual companies that don´t exist.
Now I ask: is Alibaba trustfull ? I think that in China, the frauds and copies of real brands are becoming to big that they are losing control……
There are free gangsters working for harming people, and the authorities don´t do anything…..
To all who are reading this: NEVER SEND MONEY THROUGH WESTERN UNION, TO WHOM YOU DON´T KNOW , NEVER!!!!!
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Henrimark/Ahmed Nour,
I Googled the matter and came across an official list of Alibaba.com registered companies that are known to be fraudulent
OFFICIAL LIST OF FRAUD/SCAM COMPANIES IN ALIBABA
I wonder if you were aware of this list at anytime before or after you were about to trade on this portal?
I also came across another site that has a comprehensive list of known names known to have scammed and defrauded.
ALIBABA GLOBAL TRADE SCAM
ALIBABA GOLD MEMBER SCAM
Interestingly, I also learnt that Yahoo has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba Corp. and Alibaba runs the Yahoo China business. All of a sudden, the phrase “a web of lies and deceit” seems like a twisted universal that exists in parallel to ours, like in a movie!
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Jan
Before what happened to me, I never knew about this situation.
In Alibaba I found once a saxophone seller, which was not a truthpass member….but I bought a sample (payed via paypal) and I received on time and perfect. Their name company is DELICK….they are very good manufacturer from Taiwan..
Also, after the report of Ahmed, I informed Alibaba about Parsons company, and Alibaba returned to me informing that they will be deactivated from their site. (is it so simple? – to me it seems strange….too fast to enter, too easy to leave), but it is a small victory, no doubt….
Below follows Alibaba returned email:
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yeah thats great man.
Well i am still in contact with that guy…..
Hes waiting 4 a 15,000 $ exchange and i made him type more than 9 “FAKE” invoices. ha ha ha
he just mailed me today:
I contacted parson’s music to through their site and i reported the incident but i got no answer…:S
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TOO*
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Ahmed Nour,
The need to get even is a natural knee jerk reaction. I’m completely sympathetic to the situation you’ve both found yourselves in. A tit for tat approach solves nothing but creates animosity. Cut your losses and move on. Lesson learnt.
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Yes, for a while I was still receiving the same message from them….but in my last message I informed them that they would fall again…….
Now, as we cannot do anything else, it is time to rise again, clean up the powder and walk….but now, much more expert than ever…
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There’s only one other thing you (can) do and that’s to make sure you duly alert your family members, co-workers and friends about the situation so future mistakes can be avoided. You’ve paid a price for the lesson now is the time to spread your wisdom by educating others.
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This is parsons music store response:
Thats sumthing they should at least do :)…..
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Today my blog stats picked up a discussion on KORG Forums about a scam by the same people who pulled the wool over your eyes! There’s also an interesting email transcript between the Alibaba member (seller) ROCKTASTE.CO and a potential victim.
http://korgforums.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=35978
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I alert everyone who are searching musical instruments at Alibaba.com……..today I was taking a look and some new companies have arrived there.
The funny thing is that these companies are from Hong Kong (the same as that one I wrote earlier), they say they are manufacturer, retailer, distributor, wholesaler, etc… since several years ago, but they do not have “trustpass profile”, do not have website, do not have address, sometimes they do not have even phone number…only a name.
Be very carefull !!!!!!! This is not a good first impression…..and I think scam is far from over….
Henrimark
Brazil
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They are active and targetting Asian American. I got a call today and you know what I will report them if they bother me again.
If you happen to receive such calls for survey, more importantly if you have no idea who they are, always, always say sorry I am not interested and hang up.
If they bother you, tell them you will report them to authority such as IC3.GOV and FBI.GOV if they continues.
Seriously, if they bother me again next day, I will report them immediately.
These scammers must be stopped!
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Jason,
These scammers and their network have no conscience and without a traceable number you have no case. Consider yourself fortunate that you are not a victim unlike the gentleman who is mentioned in the email I received yesterday …
The knee jerk reaction I had was advising the writer to immediately notify the bank at which the money was wired but as it turned out, the money was transferred by Western Union which is believed to be untraceable. Western Union service are very popular with foreign workers due to their low fees, reliability and speed but perhaps at the expense of security!
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Jan is one of the smartest guys out there and came close to being scammed. Feel sorry for the person with an average iq 🙂
http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900
Greg
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Jan,
I feel so sorry for the person who fall victim to this con. There are lots of other people who might never heard about this con scheme and I am pretty worried for them.
To all,
As always if it is too good to be true, then it is probably a scam. I cannot imagine the amount of money cheated by these unscrupulous global con artists. I am very sure they will continue doing what they are good at. Honestly, they are pretty good and getting better with their conning methods. People just have to be very careful, especially if they speak the language you speak at home.
I can feel that the more money they launder out of the hard working ordinary people, they are putting themselves at higher chance of getting caught. I really want to read news reports where these chinese con artists are actually caught and punished. If you guys have any link to an article please share.
If you look at FBI web page, they are working their ass off to fight white collar crimes. Especially if it affects the ordinary people. Lots of global con artists with similar schemes have been caught somewhere in other countries and sentenced in the states, such as from Spain to name one. There are lots of pending cases related to global con artists. If more Chinese speaking US Citizens are affected by this crime, I can see that those chinese speaking con artists be put in jail for their crime. I really do want to see it happens.
Be safe, do not fall trap by these global con artists.
Thanks Jan for your informative website, it helps us a lot!
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不法集团的诈骗手段层出不穷，专向贪小便宜以及希望快速致富的无知者下手，简单来说，天下没有白吃的午餐，若阁下被通知中奖、中大奖、中大大的奖，请不要开心，因为不参加抽奖何来的中将，或许，不法集团可能会用各种手段引你上当，但是最终的决定还是自己，小心谨慎最重要，不然再多的钱就只有送给人家而已。
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Jason
“There are lots of other people who might never heard about this con scheme and I am pretty worried for them.”
I am as worried for these helpless victims just as I am equally worried about the kids whose parents scam people for a living. I don’t think they do it for fun but rather what drives them is this GREED and UNREALISTIC get-rich ideas that have been hammered into their miserable lives. I feel sorry for their kids who are oblivious to the crimes their moms and dads are committing just so they (presumably) continue to live a life of UNDESERVED luxury.
As the US economy worsens, I suspect more people will be targeted and victimised by this financial crunch. The desire to have a financial security will just make people more susceptible to temptations (it’s just human nature). I have since received a “phone survey” call instead of a “lucky draw” approach. The best thing to do—hang up!
“Thanks Jan for your informative website, it helps us a lot!”
I feel it’s the right thing to do and the one thing that keeps me motivated is that this post has made a real difference to people’s lives judging from some of the responses that had been posted earlier. However, just looking at the stats of this post, it’s only generated 2,445 page views since Nov 2007. Meaning to say it has yet to reach enough homes, offices, mobile phones and whatever media is being streamed to get people’s attention ASAP.
You are more than welcome to use the button I have created to increase awareness on blogs you own or forum discussions just as Malaysian professional photographer Steven Leong has done so. I believe information is key but it’s just that most people are distracted by the daily grind to not pay much attention to them. At one time I used to receive dozens of Nigerian scams in my inbox but after I switched to Gmail, they are now automatically spam filtered.
https://shimworld.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/scam_alert.jpg (170 pixel across)
or include a link to your email signature
You know what would be really scary? It’s when scam syndicates begin recruiting members of various nationality to target different people other than the Chinese but I think that’s already happening one way or another.
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Got called repeatedly too. They don’t give up.
Using a Hong Kong VOIP number
Mandarin Speaker in Hong Kong … how unusual.
Very tempted to post her phone number here…
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I got called non stop last few days….The number appear are 5550800, 5550805. Its very annoying.. China girls mandarin speaking… Till i quarrel with her also don wan to hang up. Lastly she said ” ok la you busy !! busy till die la” very rude and hang up. Ever since that, she didn’t call back.. Thank god….
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When you remain vigilant throughout the conversation, it’s a matter of time before they lose their cool. This confirms my suspicion that they are no longer in control thanks to widely publicized news on radio, newspapers, emails, websites, etc.
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I have been getting e-mails about these millions of dollars that I won from a lottery that picked my e-mail, it was coming from Dubai and then I get further e-mails from a bank in Hong Kong and cannot tell anyone or get in touch with the banks as it is illegal to do so. Some nonsense like that. I told them that they can deal with my attorney. If they wanted to I would give them his info. They said that they will give me some sort of a check card whereby I can withdraw $10,000 a day because I told them that I do not have any bank accounts or ATM cards. Told them to send me a certified check from a verifiable bank, etc. At first wanted me to send a check via fed-ex in the amt of about $900 or so dollars to cover the insurance. I told them that I send them nothing. Now I am awaiting an e-mail reply from a Sandra Johnson from g-mail about what they are going to do to get me the money. Ten to one, I will not get a response. THESE SCAMS COME OVER THE NET ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT. I will keep you posted as to how this plays out as I will NOT give them any of my personal info.
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When you have not been victimsed by these scams, it’s entertaining just learning the lengths they would go to make the bait seem more realistic. Imagine the cat and mouse game the scammers and banks play to avoid detection. Sadly, not enough effort have been made to educate the public of the crime.
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JUST IN — PRETENDING TO BE YOUR LOCAL INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER ASKING FOR EMAIL PASSWORD THREATENING TO CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT!
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OMG >_<” haha i live in Australia and the same thing has happened and it is the worlds most annoying things ever!!!!
This stupid lady who sounds like a 5 year calls and talks to me in mandarin and she asks stupid survey questions… and the first time i had no idea why she was asking me survey questions about her stupid company that i dont even know.( it was about watches)
And i guess i sounded very confused cos she called her “supervisor” or what ever powers lie above her and that new lady was like ” how old are you are you of legal age (18) yet” and i was like nope! and shes like oh okay anyone one home and im like NO
Amazingly this happens the next day.. the same lady calls me asks me the exact same questions gets to the end and goes … YOU SOUND YOUNG ARE YOU OF AGE YET? and im like omg u asked me this sooo many times.. on this second day she managed to call my house at least 5 times whcih i hung up everytime i hear her voice….
And they just keep calling and they ask for you name and all that and then because im not 18+ and they dont want me cos i cant do anything 🙂 they ask for my dad… had to tell them that my dad passes away and she just goes OKAY IS YOUR MUM HOME? and i tell her that my mums not home -_-‘ and then inconsiderately they ask for my mum’s name and i was like ” I DONT KNOW” but how can i not know my mothers name x_x and such and such…
They eventually also tell you that their company wishes to expand to Australia (your country) and that by answering their survey you need to now give information as part of their database and then they tell you to watch television from such and such a time to see if you win for participating in their survey..
Then they call you congratulate you and tell you u win $200 000 American and that a few other people from such and such countries also won.. and that your country is so blessed that you have 2 people win from your country..
Then they ask for a handling fee O_O” of like a few thousand which is ridiculous and then they tel you to wire money through “wester union” and in this case to a “mr TUNG CHUNG PING” and they give you an ID number for HOngKong 216583373 and an address 2/F 495 NATHAN ROAD KOWLOON HONGKONG and such and such…
They tell you 2hours after you wire the money you will recieve your US$200 000
And then they tell you that they are sorry but you can’t get the money you need to give them a further HK$100 000 because you are not a resident of hongkong etc and such and such and they just keep calling when you tell them
NO im not interested i dont care i dont want your money ‘__’ and they keep calling!!!!
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Liza, many thanks for the full length version of your personal encounter with the voice of satan! The sequence of your story and the ensuing thesis sounds like mine. As for the relentless calling, put the phone in silent mode and ignore it. When it happened to me, it was easy to tell, their VOIP calls had no Caller ID so I just refused to answer any of them and eventually they stopped.
But I do wonder. With people now more informed than before about these scams and banks including remitting centres such as Western Union taking preventative measures against them, what clever tricks have they come up to convince victims to pay to?
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Hi Jan,
Thanks for your postings and also for Kenny Sia. I just looked into your website after googling for Hong Kong Scams.
I walked away from HK300,000 in prize money for a lucky draw that I never attended in Sydney becos I am in Melbourne. As per others, after happily thinking just maybe there is a little money coming through, as expected a hitch came up due to the regulations in Hong Kong and I am supposed to fork out AUD$6,000 for insurance etc. I told them that I think they are a fraud and I dont trust them. Hang up on them , they call back and after calling them a fraud and hanging up. havent received any calls so far for the last 2 hours. Wanted their details but their website is under construction – cant believe for a watch company (Pau Li) that has just celebrated its 10 years anniversary.
Maybe they know that I was going to check the identity of the person in Western Union etc.
Thanks for warning others and sharing your experience. Nowadays we need to be “WATCHful”…:-)
Cheers and God Bless
Paul Wan
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I received a phonecall as well today- “Miss Yek” from Hong Kong regarding the the lucky draw of AUD247000 that i have won from a watch company that has celebrated its 10 years anniversary.
Miss yek sounds very friendly and helpful throughout the process and i almost trusted her. At first i was a bit unsure whether this is a scam, therefore, i called my sister in Malaysia for advice and she told me that this is definately a scam and many cases like this had happend in Malaysia and i musn’t trust them.
My boyfriend scolded Miss Yek when she called the third time and told her to stop doing this to innocent people. At the end, she got nothing to say and hung up the phone!
Dear friend, please be careful and don’t fall into their trap.
Cheers.
Marie
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Ah, one of the trappings in life, redefined, in a more literal sense of the word. I wonder (and I’ve been wondering a lot lately) which of the scams have been most effective. There are probably several dozens of various internet-SMS related scams around today and they all involved big ticket items such as the nice sound of a million dollars but in the case of the Chinese scam, they lowered the bar and offered to steal a few thousands from each victim at a time on the pretext of a payment security or deposit.
The media (newspaper and TV) should proactively warn their citizens to watch out for scams that are coming to a phone near them. It has happened to many and it can happen to you. I mean come on, let’s be realistic … we live in turbulent times and most of all we live in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and female callers do not generally speak with a mainland Chinese accent nor do local employers hire them to do so for the purpose of sweet talking (by now alarm bells should have gone off instinctively).
I was at a watch shop in town to get my car key’s alarm battery replaced and conversation regarding these Chinese scams started. For an elderly gentleman, he had just one wisdom to share and it doesn’t require any translation on the part of its meaning either. He said sighing, “the scammers cannot touch you as long as you’re not greedy.” Makes a hell lot of sense, wouldn’t you agree?
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Hi please look into this site. http://www.hualiantourism.com
Received call about winning 2nd prize on websit. Required to sent $5000 US$.
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Hi,this group of scammers is getting day by day better.Imagine being able to provide factual info as such websites & tel numbers. Having gone through a real encounter, I must admit that one can easily fall for it, due to the almost flawless setup. Fortunately, I didnt lose anything, other than confidence in mankind.
Call 1: was given a lucky draw number, invited for the live ceremony/ tune in to star chinese TV for live broadcast of charity show hosted by this ‘listed’ company called 環球商旅.
Call2: after a wk, informed that I had won 2nd prize BMW car of HKD500,000, will be offered a cash cheq since I am not a HK local. Transaction will be handled by a well known lawyer 李立達. Just need to bank in cheq and post return acknowledgment slip of prize received. Lady left contact number in case I needed help. No cheq arrived however. Due to the flawless setup, one might wonder if luck has striked.
Call 3: Cash cheq option is not possible afterall. Informed by ‘lawyer’ that HK locals need to pay 15% of cash prize to charity under HK law, foreigners however pay 3%. Informed that I need to go HK in person for all these paperwork. Of cos I said that I am not prepared to FLY. Lady said deadline for prize collection is the next day!(almost 3 wks from draw date).
Offer alternative after much ‘problem shooting’ for me: if company signs a support letter, I just need to deposit the 3% into the ‘designated charity account’, upon receipt, the balance of 97% will be credited into my nominated acct. Star chinese channel replied my email saying it has never ever hosted the charity show.
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Recently I have received the call also, thanks for sharing this so important information!
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I received this from an Australian requesting me to pass it on to authorities. While I’m not associated with any law enforcement organizations, I’m happy to mention this here as a warning to anyone who might stumble upon this post to inform their friends and loved ones about the scam
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So it’s no longer from Zimbabwe or Nigeria… now we are getting people who claim they are from Hong Kong… never ending story, I guess.
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the similar scam happens almost everyday in HK, not including people didn’t report to the police. When you walk down on the street, some prentending-like nice person will come up with many purposes, questionnarie, qualify to be a model (for photo shooting…etc), invite to join a lucky draw by a travel agent(ies). I just ignore them and walk away.
Currently, they have another way to cheat old people’s money by calliing the parents that they have imprison their child because the child owe them a certain amount of money. The gangsters will ask for the parent’s cell phone right away, call up and keep on talking all the way to the bank, to make sure the old parents are not able to have any clarification by calling other parties. Nowaday, the staff work in the bank have taughty to pay high alert to those old people come to withdraw a certain amount of money. This really help in some cases.
Living in HK, same as others in other big cities, we learnt to be smart, protective…..and cool
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I have just received the similar phone call last week. Now I win $150,000 US dollars. My number is A25966.
http://www.baolongdz.hk.cn/hdxc.asp
This time, her name is 杨曼佳.
Thanks for sharing this information.
Sophia in 旧金山, USA
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I also experienced similar events, Thank Goodness I did some research, while they told me ‘you won 2nd prize’. through the warnings from various government websites, I realised that ‘never send your money away’ is the right thing to do, but I was still curious because they haven’t ask me to pay any forms of payment at this stage. so I played along till they dropped the ‘bomb’ $6250aud (of course they have lies and a tremendous amount of background story to back them up), so I stated that I’m don’t have such amount and ask for their help and willing to pay back in double, they just went crazy about how my disloyalty is hurting their feelings(I must admit she’s good at changing and avoiding different topics,lol, desperate attempt to cover up already exposed lies). and of course they give you lectures on how to take opportunities life and etc..(shifty bast**ds). I got sick of their lies and told them that I’m sure that this is a scam, eventually they give up on me and offer me time to think this through and call them back when I regain my conscience and give them my $6250. yerh right lol,now all I have to make another bank account.
these scammers take small steps at a time and tell a lot of half-lies(partly true), and I was surprised by the amount of background stories they prepared, thankfully they didn’t take any pennies off me, and thank for all those people above sharing their tragic experiences in detail, thanks Shimworld, and all the victims
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I got call from Hong Kong somewhere as “Withheld” said that I am one of the three lucky guy win 150 thousand US dollar.
Ask me to contact Mr. Lin, Jing Hua at #68 FL 18 Gongdong Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Tel. 011-852-3078-3337.
Who will be so lucky! What a joke… …
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SCAM UPDATE: MOBILE PHONE WHOLESALE
Beware of people who cannot spell their name correctly !
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not selling Rolex anymore??
Forward the email to me if you want me to report to HK police
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I just experience the same scam this morning!
A china lady called ‘Liu Ming’ claiming she is calling from a ‘Bao Li’ watch company at 370 Nathan road kow loon. Hong Kong.
Day 1 – called to do a survey.
Day 2- called to say I won 200000USD. need my ID and bank account.
I gave her medicare card number and a bank account with 11 cents in it.
Day 2- called to say I need to transfer handling fees/charges…I hung up.
I hope they won’t use my medicare card to do anything illegal.
My brother emailed me your story. Thanks for sharing your story.
I have to say they are really prepared for all the questions I asked, they seemed so real. I had doubts when the first time they called, but they seemed so convincing…etc…I am glad I didn’t fall for it.
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I got this call from HK too but is different company telling just the same thing and I won 380K HKD , i just go along with them until they said that HK government stated a law that I have to get some kind of paperwork to protect me (very strange) that is some kind of insurances that will pay me back if i lost my money in the way of transferring. and i have to pay 3% of the whole sum to get the paperwork done. I said i was just a student and i don’t have any money, than she said i must think of way and she will help me by reporting to her manager about my situation. Did HK government did this kind of Law? Very suspicious… I got this kind of call 2 time already… how to get off their list? very frustrating hearing their voices…
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Those that call, I just say politely ‘No, thank you, not interested’
Those that email, goes straight into google’s superb spam filter…
Then i enjoy the rest of my day…
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So typical of a scam, red flag in capital letters. Thank you for your detailed journal of occurrent. Here in the US we have the National Do Not Call, by signing up online with the federal gov. you list your phone numbers where they’re blocked from the telemarketers for 5 years. You need to update at the end of every 5 years.
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hi there, luckily i found this post.
i was also being called by this lady a few weeks ago and they told me to participate in a tele survey or sth. then i ans her and helped her with the survey. the about a week later, she called again and told me that i eligiable to particiate in thier company lucky draw and so she give me my no. A6118 and told me to catch Channel New Asia on 31th july to watch the programme, the show also be casted by some celebrity. of course, i didnt bother to watch the show.
Last week she called and said i won the 3rd prize of $950000HK which convert to $190000 SGD. she asked for my account no and particular and so i gave her everything. She was quite impress that i was so young, age only 20 and had win myself such a lump of money.
Yesterday she called me and comfirm my particular say that she will sent to the company accounting and process my winning.
Today she called me and told me to go the my back and check at 12pm, saying the money will be transferred in by that time. kinda happy for myself as i thought wow, so lucky? 190000 just dropped to me. Checked my account at 1230pm and no money was in. she called at around 1pm and told me that there is some error in transferring. this is because hong kong govt only allow $50000hk transaction etc etc.
so i need to pay like 2.1%(which is like $3990 SGD) of the winning to set a safe transfer account which then verify that the winnning is not some legal transfer of money. She also mention that i will be able to get back my money after the winning money has been transferred to me, so i actually does not have to pay a single cent. She mention she will get a legal back account which has no affination with their company to help me with the procedure, so i just need to go to the local bank to transfer the money.
I was quite into what she said as it all seem quite real, but thinking that i needa pay nearly $4k and its kinda risking and so i asked if she had her company website and so i can go and take a look. she then said that the website doesnt put up the winnier of the draw and give me this http://www.cr.gov.hk, their company no. 0149792 , for me to check that their company is legally regristered and so i don need to worry.
luckily i read this post and i shld really believe that it was a scam and thanks goodness i had not fallin the trap.
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Yong Chiang,
Thank you for taking the time to share your account. Scam cases have become very rampant in recent times and I’ve forwarded this post via Twitter and Facebook to remind folks about this quick rich scam!
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hi Yong Chiang,
I got the 100% exactly the case as you NOW (while I am typing). I am still wonder, considering whether to believe, so i check the web. Luckily I read your case. But, they really sound so REAL and frankly, I am so tempting to believe. How…? can you contact me? My msn is (passage.com@hotmail.com). Waiting for you… thks.
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i’m presently on assignment in Makati, Manila. For some reason my phone (Nokia E71)’s wifi isn’t very compatible with the free or paid internet so … I’m presently connected to one that surprisingly works. There’s no reason you should even be comtemplating this. It’s a scam that’s all you need to know!
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hahaha think just dont believe will be better, greed kills.
i was quite comtemplating to believe them at 1st, but ya, they called me a few days ago to ask me if i still want to claim my winning, saying that it will be a waste if i dun claim it etc etc. but ya, no way im gonna fall into this trap =)
u can find me at wazzap_devil11@hotmail.com
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its a scam, confirmed. I received the same bull as yong chiang, right down to the CR and prize winning. waiting for them to call back again to give them hell.
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yea! shld give them real hell! =)
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I got a phone called from 宝格钟表公司. She told me I won USD 200000, so I gave her all my details including my bank account. So I cheked my money next day but money hasnt come in. Then another person from the same company phoned saying the government doesnt allow such big amount of money to be transfered into international bank account, so i gotta go to my local post shop to bank in the money around USD6000 for some procedures. Similar case to Yong Chian. Luckily I didnt fall into the trap. They even gave me phone number which is 0085230788273…. Now i worried that I gave them my account number, what will they do about it
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Oh i got the same case as Paul 3:01 pm on November 11, 2008…
LUCKY i read all of the comments here…
Useful website indeed, will spread around to create awareness
Thanks to everyone for sharing the infos!
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I call the bank hotline and the staff says they can’t do anything with just the bank account number alone, but if you are still worried, you can close your bank account and reopen the new one.
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Bank account alone is all they need … to send me some money but what’s the chance of something like that happening any time soon? [Friday eve humour] 😉
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I received an email of what appears to be a another scam USA VISA LOTTERY targeting folks who seek the promise of “travel to the U.S. and start a new life and work” and how you are among the 55 lucky winners in their annual visa program which scans millions of email addresses across the world.
Read more: https://shimworld.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/usa-visa-scam.jpg
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Hi Jan!
I read with interest on one of your article wrt “SCAM”. At the moment I am experiencing this – very annoying!,
The first call started on 16th sept around 9.08pm under the guise of “unknown”. I thought it was an international call lines. I answered it and heard a male’s voice looking for someone…i didnt catch the name. I told him wrong number and hung up!
At 9.15pm, # 5300238 called me. I answered it and no voice at the other end, so i hung up. I didnt answer the call when the following numbers were used: +447878864769, 5550805, 5300902, 5300237. However, today I was so fed up with their persistent call with the number 5550800, i answered them “stop calling”! and hung up. This was followed with another call under the guise of “unknown”. It was at this time i decided to google the number and I stumble upon your website. Amazing how they can wreck me within 2 days with different numbers each time!
Next time I will just have to ignore! and I hope this stops!
Just fyi,
Aria
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Hi Jan, Thanks for your post. I almost got scam the same way and it just happen. Means they have not stop it, even worst if this is another copy cat company.
Here’s my story. I got a call also by a lady who sound like from mainland china, her name is 许慢心 she said i have bought some electronic product either from sony or panasonic and was entitled a lucky dip 2000 was selected from singapore, 2000 selected from malaysia and 2000 from Hong Kong. I got 3rd prize together with 3 other people. Total cash price of HKD$650,000.00. The other 2 from HK already got their prize money on the spot when the TV programm was air on CCTV on the 13 of sept 2009, and even the Malaysia winner also got his money, now they are wondering how come after so long i did not claim my prize, so They call me up to check. So I ask her how do you varitfy that the winner is me when u never ask me for my identity number or passport number. She could not give me a very good reply, reply to keep saying that is it I don’t believe her. She say my name is correct and my phone number is correct right so it must be me. She also say that i have a lucky number 37527 which they pick out form the draw. It’s their company 18 year anniversary draw. While talking to me on the phone trying to convince me that she understand that there are lots of scam company out there and it’s only normal that i don’t believe her, she also put me on hold and answered another phone call which a customer call in to order some products from them. Company name is 日晨有限公司, address is 九龙湾道，158-160号，吉心大厦, 5 floor and 6 floor. Phone number: +85230783335. Finally to a point i ask her what she need from me? Is it first i must give her some money first. She ask for my bank account number, full name and birthday. Which i also gave her thinking that it’s no harm. She end to call by telling me that once i receive i will believe and must call her to thank her, even if next time i go HK must go buy her dinner, even ask me have i thought of how to spend this money. She also tell me i have to pay a 15% of my price money for HK goverment tax. So when the prize money is converted to Singapore dollars i should get S$118,900.00, the Tax i need to pay to HK is S$17,835.00. But i only need to pay this tax one week after i have received the money. Sounds ok so far right.
Day 2: The so call manager a male called me to double check my bank account number, name and birth date, Than told me he will go to the bank to remit the money to me right away and ask me to go to the bank one hour later to check and print out an account balance and fax it to them so that they can proceed with the tax form…. As you can guess i wait checking my the ATM every 2 hours but nothing happen.
Day 3: I have already given up hope that this is for real, but still decided to call 许慢心 to tell her i no longer believe her and that she is fake, but when i call, she act shock to hear that i have not gottan my money, she say she thought i already got it and happily spending it. After hearing form me she say she will double check with her manager. By 4pm she call back and told me that the bank has close but they will check and her manager will get back to me the next day.
Day 4: She call me again, this time to tell me that the bank rejected the transfer because I am not a HK citizen so in order to pay the HK tax i got to authorise their company to pay this tax for me. And to do that, i have to make a 4% payment of my prize money S$4756.00 to this accounting firm appointed by HK Goverment. Company name 世华国际联合律师事务所 address: 香港九龙旺角大厦12 floor. Account number : 7860-0362-4888 name of account : Wan Yu Ng Lung. Bank name: Hang Seng Bank limited. When i ask how come the account name is not the company name, and is there any document they can fax me to show me that this amount i remit over is for what purpose, for more information about both the company and what are their english name… she don’t dare to review anymore.
At the end she still call me and say wanna give you money but since u don’t believe can don’t remit this S$4756.00 and give up my price money. I said fine. I don’t want the money.
For readers who read this post by me, please don’t get scam by these people be extra careful, if you wanna check does their company exist you can go to this website by HK goverment to check. http://www.cr.gov.hk/en/home/index.htm than click on the bottom first icon that says ” company informantion check” than follow the instruction and type in the company name and you will know if which ever company really register themself in HK or not. I have also for Jan’s advise and email to Hang Seng Bank about this matter, if i do get a respond from them be sure i will post it here for everyone to read.
Thanks
Almost victim
Dolly Soh
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Hey guys,
chk dis out, a similar case
http://g-inxane.blogspot.com/
Im also almost a victim. Thank god I check with 3 other bank officers b4 any further action
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Thank you for this website because if not i had check before wire the money, i would been a victim of scam.
Few weeks back, someone from nowhere called my cellphone in US and asked me to participate in a survey. I am thinking since she asked some general questions, may be i should just helped her out. SHe told me that there would be a carnival next week and i should participate. I said i am not interested and hanged up on her.
This morning i received a phone call from HK telling me that i had won a USD150k cash prize from the telephone survey. She called form Gailen Tec group and told me that i had won a cash prize off usd150k. She asked me why i did not attend the carnival and reclaim the prize. The reason their company was giving out the prize was to promote their electric goods. They just hoped that after i claim the prize, i would promote for their company. Nevertheless, she said the company had saved the prize for me and what i need to do is to call her team leader for futher details. She got the particular from me including my name, dob, bank account and a valid ID.
I called the team leader as told and when i called they said she was busy and 30 minutes later, the team leader congratulated me and tell me how fortunate that i had won the cash prize and she again confirmed particular with me and said she needs to process my winning prize. She share her personal life with me and told me that she was a divorcee and now worked in HK, had one kid and bla bla bla. She then told me to wait for her call since she need to get her manager to approve my prize claim.
Hour later, she told me that my winning prize had been approved and she had to asked the lawyer and auditor how to wire the cash to me. Throughout the entire conversation, there was always another phone call whereby she asked me to hold and let me listened to the entire conversation to make the scam so real. It seems she was so busy and another prize winner called her and thanked for her help. Also, she received phone call from auditor telling her how i shld proceed with my claim. She even provide me with a temporary account number and password with the Bank of HK & Macau, so i could verify my information. Sure enough, this scammer provide the bank phone number and when i keyed in the account number and password, it appear that there was a balance of 150k.
Too good to be true right?
Then, she called again and tell me HK government had a new money-laundering act and require all wire transfer money to oversea to be monitored and for this purpose, their company auditor’s had provided an independent insurer to insured the sum of monies and to ensure that I was the winner and the monies was legitimate She said i need to fork out $4k for the security account and auditor fees. She requested me to wire the money into a Western Union account with the name of ZongMiau Pan. She requested me to go to the white people so the transfer of fund would be faster. She kept pestering me and did not give me time to think. I keep asking her how do i confirm whether this is true and i would get my cash prize money. She guaranteed that i wld receive the monies withtin 2 hours after i wired the monies. I said i could not trust her. Then she threatened me, if that the case, i better not to claim the prize.. This is surely a tactic to cause victim to panic and fear that they would not receive the prize.
I did as what she said and went to Western Union to wire the monies. So fortunate that i did not had additional ID and the clerk rejected my application to send money out.
So i called her and tell her what happened, she insisted me to go to different branch to wire the money so no additonal ID is required. I told her that it would be better if i just get the ID from home. She agreed and told me to call her when i wired the money again.
I went home and think about the entire episode. It seemed it happen so fast and the lady keep wanting me to wire the money today. I felt something was not right.
So, i decided to check the internet and came across this blog. When i read what SHinmoworld written, i knew that i was a victim of fraud. I really thank god for his protection over me. All this thing happen because of GREED. Thank God for giving me wisdom not to proceed with the transaction. God actually did that by causing me not to bring the ID to Western Union.
The lady kept calling me when i did not call her. She called me at least 10 times and i did not take her call. Finally , i played along with her when she kept calling me.
I told her that i was lost because i could not find the Western Union. Then i hanged up. When she called again, i told her that my husband did not allow me to do any wire transfer and i have no choice because i had no money. SHe was very concerned and she actually want to speak to my husband and convince us that this is a lifetime opportunity. I said we rather lose the money if we have to paid the 4k. Finally, she gave up on me. I did not receive her call anymore for now but if she still call me tomorrow , i would tell her that i had already lodged a police report with FBI and HK police.
Hope whoever read my blog will serve as a reminder and warning sign to those who encounter scam like this.
Thanks
Almost victim
CC
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Hello Carrie,
I appreciate the detailed account you’ve shared with us. It looks like the same MO is still being deployed globally—really does make me wonder what their success rate is. Worse thing is they continue to use Western Union as bait. In Brunei, the WU tellers are training to look for suspicious/unusual remittance abroad. WU is very popular among overseas workers so I’m guessing this makes it a good platform to mask some “dirty” money. Because of your narrow escape, you have emerged wiser and stronger. I’m certain you’ve helped other “almost victims” from satisfying the scums.
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Hey, i just received the same phone call as you did, and i nearly gave out my details. However, i told her that i did not have the details now and to call back later. I decided to google the number she gave me and I came to your post.
Now i know if she calls me back it is a scam. I really almost believed her.
Thank you so much for making this known.
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Nice blogg!
We live in Sweden and some how they manage to call home to us.
However this is our story.
When I came home from school mum told me that she won some million money from a lottery. I ask her if she even played lottery she said no, but a alcohol company in Hong Kong call her some week ago and told here that thy have a anniversary and sounded nice exactly like you guys have been telling here and gave her some numbers . I knew something was not right so I Google “Scam+Hongkong” and found this blogg. I told my mum that they are scammers she didn’t believed me. By looking at the behaviour of the scammers your wrote (at this point they were going to send us money) I told my mum that next time they call they will say: that they can’t send money because we doesn’t live in Hong Kong and ask to send money to pay some tax. however she kinda believed me.
The next day they called again. They said the words you guys told me that they would do. you have to send some money (30,000 HKD). My mum by the point know it’s now true and ask if they are kidding her and told that she didn’t have that much money and don’t want it.
They never called again….
Thanks to you guys we managed not to spend any money on those THANKS!
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Many thanks Kawai (and Clare Tan, comment before Kawai’s) for taking the time to write this. By doing so, you let people who may be potential victims know that the scam is very much still going on and seems to be going from country to country where Chinese-speaking community thrives.
Your comment brightens up the otherwise dull, wet, overcast week we’ve been getting here in Brunei—funny how life teaches us to not be greedy, turn down (unsolicited) offers to live a better life—away from harm’s way!
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it happen to me also! i’m from Guam…last week the lady called me that she’s from ASIA PACIFIC TRAVELING GROUP hongkong, somebody refer me thats why they got my phone number…..she told me that they having 20 yrs anniversary, and they inviting me to go to hongkong, and she ask if i can go there!..so i say yes! and then she took my mailing address, so i gave my address, and she told me that right away she’s gonna mail it! and she told me that she’s gonna call me next week!…..o ok! im thingking if its true or not! and may be this is only a scam….then after one week i got a mail from them but its not a plane ticket, its a 2 coupon! its like i need to scratch and theres a price…so ok! i scratch and the other one i sratch it says “sorry try again” and the second one says that i won the 3rd prize a $80,000usd, i still dnt believe it! but in my mind maybe this is true! so i try to call the number to how to claim the price….then i called, the lady again is the who answer, but i didn’t notice it was her….and i tell her what i get and she ask me what is the reference # of the coupon, and then she told me that the customer will call me to verify it…so next day she’s the one who called me and told me that i won the $80,000 usd and she need my id and bank account# to deposit my cash money…she told me that its okay if its new acct or no money in my acct… so in a way that i believe her! maybe its true!…but before i send my information i check their website http://www.aptr.hk …and when i check it its true that its a travel agency….and they have a lot of prices like 1st price BMW car, a round the world ticket for 2, $80,000, i phone, tshirt etc… so i said to my self that this is true….so next day saturday feb.27, 2010 i send thru fax my id# and acct#… and she called me again that they to verify again my info and she’s gonna call me on monday again! so Im excited in abit but still im scared! and monday came she called me and she confirm again my name and bank acct#… and she said congratulations you won the 80,000 cash…but she ask me questions again about the insurance thing! she told me its like in the custom airport, they need insurance to pay like $2,000 so they can transfer my money….so ok! this it! its a scam….i dont listen to her while shes talking i just hang up the phone! she didn’t called me again…
and then i search in their website again to find something…now im scared that i gave my drivers license photo copy…do you have any advice, what i’m gonna do? if somebody from hongkong read this, here’s the address of that travel agency!
ASIA PACIFIC TRAVELING GROUP website: http://www.aptr.hk
Hongkong headquarter:
15/F VIP Commercial Centre,
120 Canton Road, Hongkong
tel.# (852)30756623
(852)30756626
fax#(852)31828557
GUANGZHOU BRANCH
18/,jinying building, no.1
jinying road, tianhe district, Guangzhou
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i just receive call like that, n given the web http://www.yongdahk.com
what do you guys think?
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they are really convincing lol…
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I have just received 2 GRAND LUCKY DRAWS “Scratch and Win” coupons from “Asia Pacific Traveling Group”. One is a prize for USD 80,000.00 CASH!!! Sounds great!. But I have checked the web site and found you. I don’t think I will call the number given after what I have read. Last year we were approached by a publishing company telling us to re apply for our business to be included in their business directory. This proved to be a scam. The interesting thing with this latest mailout is that the name, address, font and presentation on the envelope is exactly the same as the business mailout…different request but very much the same….BEWARE!!!!!!
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Chris&linda Day 6.30pm on March 19 ,2010. Just opened my mail,Wow ive won $80000,us.Have already rung HK,will ring me back with confirmation……?
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I have just received the two scratch cards, one was the winning card of second prize $80,000US. I contacted the phone number and a man replied and requested the same info as was requested from Scheann. I said that I was willing to travel to Hong Kong to collect the money, he was confused and said that he will contact me again. I felt that it was a scam so I decided to add my comment to warn people about this scam company.
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I am in NZ and have recently eceived the same two scratch cards. I called the number on the cards and a guy called David Kim returned my call to confirm that I had won the money USD $80,000 ! He asked me to fax through ID, bank a/c details, photocopies of ticket and the money would be wired to my account Monday or Tuesday. I sensed a scam so have since e-mailed a couple of the main sponsors detailed on http://www.aptr.hk to confirm the alliance with the company. I guess I wont get a response. Have also submitted this via our internal affairs department so they can warn other NZ’ers about this scam. Let’s hope our messages help others in the same position.
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Thanks for the threads…Looks like the scam is back on again. I received a letter in the post with 2 scratch cards saying I have won USD80,000 and when I rung the number 00852 30756623 an American Guy answered and said he will call me back….They are now operating as ASIA PACIFIC TRAVELING GROUP.
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Dang! Now they have someone who speaks American accent?! I think they finally realized that their mainland Chinese accents (often irritatingly high pitch) are no longer effective! I foresee this becoming pandemic when they successfully recruit native speaking crooks and instead of cumbersome bank wire transfers, they use PayPal instead .. it would be just a matter of time before they go mainsteam.
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Hi Guys please help me , as to what shall i do as i have already given them my entire detais, , The same scrath cards us 80000 in the post. God Bless
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OMG, I was nearly a victim today too with this sort of scam! The lady from the phone sounded so real and I nearly believe her. Luckily, I got suspicious and called my husband and he assured me not to do anything. This lady called more than 5 times today just so that I can give her the 5K for the HK government insurance. I told her this is too short notice to pick up the cash from the bank cos in Australia you need at least one day notice. She was saying I will forfiet the prize money if I dont send the money today but after an hour later, she said I can now send tomorrow.
BTW, she said she is from Bai Shen Watches Pty Ltd in Hong Kong, Wanchai and she even gave me their business address which I search yellow pages hong kong and cannot find this company. She gave me her business and mobile phone numbers. Inititally, a week ago, there was a telephone survey on watches and I answered it light-heartedly. A few days ago, they rang me to tell me I won a prize as I was busy and I told them to call back. Today, she called and said I have won some jewelry worth HK$900K and she asked to me to go HK to collect the prize. I said I cannot go so she said I can take the cash HK$800k. I was thinking it’s not going to hurt if I give her a bank account details with zero balance. Oh no, she even conned me for my mobile phone no, drivers licence no and dob. Also, she gave me an Australian prize winner telephone number to call. I will call tomorrow to see what happen.
She is such a professional con……I still kind of believe her until I saw this website….it’s exactly the same plus more con tactics…..
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The trend is back again.
They are now targetting into office sector in Singapore. A strong english accent speaking lady called up to look for my Japanese MD. Also say she’s calling from a Travelling Group & that he had won a prize in the auto lucky draw system. Which I find its fair cos my MD had been travelling around often. So, naturally I transferred the call to my MD.
5mins later, he come out to tell me to BLOCK all calls from any English Speaking Women & Men!
Apparantly he had receive similar calls before and he knows. Then the scam become a worried for my MD that he ordered a MEMO to be issued to all staffs to notify all of us of the scam & not to fall for it.
Side track abit.. My MD had been away for 2 weeks & just returned on 29th March. The lady practically CALLED everyday since 17th March. I told her that my MD is out-stationed yet she keep calling & calling. Persistance pest..
Is there any ways to stop all these phone scammer~!
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FYI, There’s no such company called Asia Pacific Travelling Group listed in the HK Yellow pages or PCCW Directories. Please becareful and thank you to this website
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Hi, I am from New Zealand. I got a scratch card in the mail, I cannot fathom how they got my address. And yes, I won $80,000 USD. Sent them the details and stuff. To be on the safe side, I had my Sister in Hong kong check on them. As earlier writers have said, the company doesn’t exist nor is the phone number answered. It took me a while to realize that when I called the number, they said that they would call me back instead of continue the conversation. That was odd.
The same good old company, Asia Pacific Travelling group.
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With the frequently use of “Asia Pacific Travelling Group” as bait, I have now tagged the name along with “Scratch Card” scam in this post to increase the chance of someone finding out about the scam if/when he/she Googles the name. Anyone who has benefited from this blog owe it to you all who came forward with your personal encounters.
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As to how the scam artist got hold of your address, I don’t think it’s that difficult. Unless you subscribed for non-listing, chances are your name and address are on a publicly accessible White Pages of some sort such as http://yellow.co.nz/whitepages/ and you may have been just randomly “lucky” to have been chosen 🙂
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Hello from Guam I too was almost fooled by these scam artists. Need not to say much all the blogs speak for itself. It would had been nice to win 80,000.00 USD. BEWARE of ASIA PACIFIC TRAVELING GROUP. By way here’s there number’s (852)30756623 30756626 fax (852)31828557 ask for Theresa or Melissa same voice different women watever….
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Previously i keep on recieving calls from overseas seems to be a china girl operator conducting survey on their company.. then they keep on follow up with me …for some stupid excuse… right i dont think its a harm talk to them since i`m free to talk, till last week i received call from them again and they ask me if i have time i should watch their event on malaysia satelite tv “ASTRO” channel PHEONIX on Saturday 10/04/2010 at around 5-6pm so i said if i have time i will watch. Alright then today at around 1pm i received call again and they said last saturday their event have lucky draw and i won the lucky draw at around HK$300k++ converted to malaysia RM170k++ .. wow its a big money so i entertain them but in my mind i keep telling myself if there is any payment i will just ignore it, Suprise they dint even ask for any payment. So i google it if there is any scam about this? and the result is theres alot of people get scammed by this case.
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I am from New Zealand and my sister in-law just received the 2 scratchy thingys and like all above she also won ( around the world trip for 2). She was suspicious at first but got her nephew to check on the internet if they were legitimate. They came across a realistic looking travel agency website so started to believe it was true. So i decided to give it another check and also came across the company’s website and thought everything that’s on the brochure they gave is exactly what is written on there web page which looked all little to cheap to me. I then decided to keep searching then came across this site i now want to return the favour and help notify everyone. There new company name is:
“SKY INTERNATIONAL TRAVELING GROUP”
Contact details of agency:
Address:21/F, 32, Kimberley Road, Tsim
Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852)65170850
(852)65170851
Fax: (852)31828587
….i hope this helps to stop others from being scammed.
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Thank you for your contribution. I’ve tagged “SKY INTERNATIONAL TRAVELING GROUP” to this so it’ll be a matter of time before it shows up on Google, Yahoo and BING search engines.
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Hey everyone,
I’ve just received a very suspicious phone call just like the one you mentioned, Jan Shim, about a company wanting to set up business in New Zealand, specializing in selling watches. She asked me to tune into a TV show which, obviously, I didn’t bother. Later she phoned again to alert me that I’ve won the second prize, with another prize going to someone in NZ, and the first prize to someone in HK. She asked me to call a number: 00852 30626665 or something like that, saying that her name was Lim. There was also background noise of office workers.
What a load of crap. Thanks for you post, it seemed almost like my case. Gave me a “lucky number” too. Sad how low people have gone down.
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Hi
I am glad I searched on the internet on Scams from Hong Kong and I got your website. Phew, the same scenario like yours. When I read what you were experiencing was exactly like mine. I was told I won the prize and needed my bank acct number and id. Then two days later they wanted some documents. Next it was asking from me S$3462 to be sent via the Western Union. I bargained with them, if this is true, can use this amount to offset against the prize. I don’t have that kind of money to wire to them.
Truly I thank you for your sharing.
God Bless!
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Hi,
Thanks for posting this scam experience on the internet. I can’t believe I am stupid enough to believe it’s true till I saw your posting. I got a call at work recently, everything else is exact the same as what you posted. Apparently, they are now probing into Australia. Don’t know why I never heard anything when there were such scams happened in New Zealand in 2007,and I can’t believe they are still going. I gave out my bank details as well as my mobile number.
Here’s my warning to everyone: there’s no free lunch in the world, and DO NOT trust any suspicious international calls. And, forget about your kind heart, screw the whole survey scam.
I warn you those people who did this to me. You cheated my kind heart, and I was stupid enough to fall into the trap, and I will curse you forever.
P.S. YOU WILL BE CAUGHT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I received a call last week from a Chinese Speaking Lady called Ms YE who told me that I had won HKD1Million from a lucky draw event organised by their company (Gold.Jdebeers Jewelry Co.) which was conducted in Malacca on 16Dec2009. She gave me my membership number, her official website, with all the company contact and address. (www.jdebeers.com) Like the other make-believe situations, I was told that my phone number was entered into the lucky draw through a survey which was conducted few months back – Actually I did do a survey but did not pay much attention to it at that time. She told me a lot of information regarding the my obligation to pay 15% taxation to HK government within 3 days for the large amount of money to be transferred to my account, expiry date of the money held guaranteed by their bank and which will be expiring on 01July. Since I was not really aware of such scams which were already so widespread in Asia – I only encountered Emails on lottery by Nigeria, Australia, UK etc. I was obviously taken in by that smooth talking lady who made the whole winning scenario so real!
I gave her my bank account details, telephone number etc.. (MY BIG & STUPID MISTAKE!). Subsequent calls requested for “refundable” insurance fee of SGD2760 (cannot be deducted from the Winning money) to guarantee that the HKD1Million is not by money laundering syndicate and that HKD 1million will be transferred to my account within 40minutes when they received the insurance fee. She then told me to transfer the fee to a designated accountant called Mr Chen. So I told her that I will transfer all the fee and taxes if she can provide me with the legal bank letter stating that that HKD 1million has been held and guaranteed for me by a legal bank and that the refundable insurance fee is a pre-requisite for transferring the funds. I told her and later followed up with an email to her company (jinbiersi@yahoo.com.cn) specifying that nobody will transfer money through a phone call to any person without any documents verifications. This is not right and if she wants the insurance fee, she has to provide me with all the legal documents from Hong Kong bank and her company for me to verify the authenticity of “my winning” before I can transfer even $1 to her. That is the last I heard from her.
Gosh, some people would carry out such immoral means to cheat people of their money and YES, their targets are on basic human greed and our desires to have easy money. I am glad that I stumbled upon this website and thanks to Jan Shim for sharing his experience.
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Hi Kathy,
You’re welcome and many thanks for sharing your story with us. I don’t think you’re in any real danger having given out your bank account details and phone number other than the inconvenience of the entire episode. I have added the following tags “www.jdebeers.com”, “jdebeers.com”, “jdebeers”, “j.debeers” including her email to this post to warn potential victims smart enough to look them up before divulging personal information. Don’t worry if the tags aren’t visible as I’ve coded the theme to hide them while still remaining visible to search engines.
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Good day,
I am glad to read your website. I also which to Inform you that I am a Professional Scam Investigator. I have been investigations Scam for over 4 years now. I have been a perpetrator and victim of Scams. I was a scammer my self at my tender age and understand all the Kinds of Scam available, Lottery, Come & Marry, Come & Carry, Next Of Kin, Telemarketers Survey Calls etc just to name a few. My company Specializes in Locating Scammers Once you have their informations (Phone Numbers, Names, email and Addresses) All though we know they use fictitous names but nonetheless we have our hook in the sinker method of approaching these Issue. Just reply to my post and i’ll give you more details.
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Hey from Guam.
Just got a version of the scam this past weekend. They call themselves Explorer Tourism Group in Hong Kong. They wanted me as a guest at their party in Hong Kong. You could hear people in the background (“no, I already did that page” of the phone book maybe?) Gave me a lucky guest number (A54188) and called back a few days later, supposedly from the party (loud noise and drums in the background –but not till after the lady on the phone established it was me again) saying very excitedly “you won 100,000 US dollars!”
She and another couple of Chinese ladies keep calling trying to give me my prize which involves a bank to bank transfer. Been giving her the run around while I tried to figure out who they are. There is a website like the one mentioned above (mercedes benz, 60 day round the world trip, etc.) and the phone numbers listed on the site (852 37961842) don’t match up to the “Grace” gave me over the phone (852 30770202).
Stay safe.
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Thanks to this site. I almost got caught in this.
The new tricks is under jewellery company (DUOFUCC) where you are a 2nd Cash price winner.
Now they even can give you bank contact officer to verified your details.
THis is the moment the block come in. Officer ask you to have insurance on the cash to be TT in.
Next give you local winners contact to assure you are not cheated. They are also having CI to their scam.
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Scam technique that uses peace of mind psychology—I just prefer PEACE and QUIET. Period.
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I think I had the same experience. Details were different. The lady was quite persistant. In the end, I pretended to be busy and asked for HER phone number when she called. So that I can call back when free. She told some fob story about employees not allowed to give out.. bla bla bla. I told her maybe you don’t like strangers calling you everyday. “Now you know how I feel when you call”, and hung up. Never got another call. hehehe
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Effective reverse psychology, Johnny. Thanks for sharing. There are many ways to not encourage them, I don’t have much patience dealing with nonsense, I just hang up. Nothing speaks louder than silence—life is an irony, sometimes!
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I normally would hang up but I don’t, I know first hand how hard it is to find people to respond to questionaires so I do what I can. Beyond that is where the buck stops. It’s too bad these people are giving legitmate questionairers (is there such a word?) a much harder time.
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I believe ‘legitimate market researchers’ is the description you have in mind. Originally I had ‘surveyor’ in mind which in your context may be used too but in the traditional sense, surveyor is used to describe a profession that surveys land, buildings, etc. To date, I have only participated in two kinds of phone surveys—one from a bank and another that ended rather quickly. The gentleman who called asked if my nature of work involved the media. I said yes and it was end of story (the intended target were people outside the media and journalism profession) 🙂
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Sharing a new development in scam tactics I received in an email.
LATEST MOBILE PHONE TACTIC IN TAIWAN | BE EXTRA VIGILANT WHEN STRANGERS APPROACH YOU TO BORROW YOUR PHONE.
These con artists who will approach you are likely to be a female or an elderly person. They will tell you that they just got rob and need to call the police. Right in front of you, they will call 110, 911 or 119 (the emergency tel for the local police). They will speak loudly for you to hear that they are reporting a case but halfway through, they will pretend that the reception is poor and walk about 5meters away from you with their back towards you.
All they need is 1 minute and a tiny gadget that acts as a USB (available for sale in China) to copy your entire phone book contacts.
Then over the next few hours, they will SMS to all your contacts, pretending to be you (with your tel no appearing in your contact’s phone). The SMS will say that you are now overseas, in trouble with the police, you cannot use your phone and that is why you are sending out SMS. You need help to transfer money to an account. Usually the amount they ask is within affordable range.
Your phone will not be contactable for the few hours that they are busy sending out SMS. So your family and friends will believe you are in trouble.
The case below happened to a Taiwanese and he reported to the local police a few days later when his friends finally manage to contact him and he learned that he was being duped.
The police told him that this is an old trick that they use to target tourists and now they are moving to the locals.
So my friends, please do not lend your phone to ANYONE you do not know. If they really want help, send them to the nearest police station!
兄弟，借個手機打一下吧!
別以為手機在妳視線範圍內就沒有事！
也不能感歎為什麼現在的社會，人與人之間情誼越來越淡薄.
衹要男人別好色，女人同情心不泛濫，以下例子不會發生在各位身上滴。。。
手機千萬不要借給別人用！！！
我現在的天是灰色的，無緣無故的背上了三十多萬的債務，雖然這些錢不會讓我沒飯吃，但是這種賠錢和欠錢方式，我實在是無法接受。我給大家講我這幾天的真實經歷，情景還原：
4月4日清明節這天，我和老婆去金寶山掃完墓覺得時間還早，就去百貨公司買幾件換季新衣服，逛到二樓的時候，老婆內急去廁所，我就在廁所外面等她，這時跑過來一個女孩（這女孩很漂亮，165的個頭，打扮的很時尚，很清純的裝扮，是男人誰也無法拒絕對這樣一個女孩的幫助那一型，但怎麼也不可能拿她和騙子劃等號。）含著淚對我說：
“大哥，您借我手機用一下好嗎? 我的皮包連手機剛才被人偷了，我要報警，求求您了。
我當時啥都沒說就把手機拿給了她，她當著我的面就打了110，然後和police大人對話，這一切的一切都非常正常，我沒有任何戒心，然後她喂喂了兩聲說信號不好，就往我遠處走了五 六米 ，並且背對著我打電話，因為還在我的可控範圍內，而且她說什麼我都聽的到，我也沒有警惕，說實話誰能對這樣一個弱不禁風打扮時尚的美女有戒心呢？
她大概背著我和police交流了兩分鍾，然後轉過頭把手機遞給我：“大哥，實在太謝謝您了，police一會就到，您真是好人。
” 我一看手機完好就說：“沒事的，能幫到妳最好了，以後要把手機放好了”
這時老婆出來了，我們就繼續逛商場了，一切看著那麼平淡正常！！！
但是噩耗已離我不遠 。。。。。。。。。。
4月6日，我和我老婆的手機就傳來了一個接著一個的怪異的訊息，第一個接到電話的是我老婆，是她妹妹打來了說：“姐夫怎麼回事呀？在大連PC(嫖妓)被抓了，怎麼找我來借錢呀？”
第二個是我的一個下屬打來的說：“胡哥，錢匯過去了，趕緊把事情擺平吧，我手上就這30000現錢，都給妳匯過去了，希望能幫上忙。”
這時我跟我老婆已經傻了，不停的解釋著，接著接到了不下100個電話，整個一天我們都在解釋著、辯解著，手機一直沒停過，到晚上終於沒有電話了，我和老婆靜下來的思考結果是：
我遇到騙子了，騙子以我的名義給我所有的親朋好友發短信，說我出事了，在大連PC被抓了，現在需要50000塊錢贖身，手裏沒有那麼多現錢，不敢和家裏人要錢，在拘留所裏不能接聽電話，衹能找妳相助 。。。。。。。。
我意識到了問題的嚴重性，趕緊要來了敗壞我名譽的電話號碼給他打電話，但是,不是無人接聽就是忙，發短信也不回。
我頭完全大了，不知所以，誰能這麼準確知道我那麼多的聯繫人呢？
而且知道所有人的姓名，我想是不是手機中毒了，號碼被盜走了。
第二天繼續接到很多詢問電話，我才意識到問題的嚴重性，公司主管也給我打來了電話 。。。。
我當時想去尋死了。。。。這絕對是我當時的真實想法，已經沒有勇氣面對眼前這件事了，因為我在國營企業上班，遇到這種傷風敗俗的事情，以後很難﹛起頭了。
由於我沒有頭緒，毫無解決辦法，我趕緊找我的一個當pollice的朋友幫忙，我去他單位找他，把這件事從頭到尾跟他說了一遍，沒想到他樂了：
“哎呀。。。。，你也上這種當了，這個專偷手機號碼的騙子太可恨了，說實話我今早上也收到你的求救短信了，但是我不信是真的，正想有時間就給妳打電話呢，沒想到你就來了。春節過後我們接到好幾起這樣的報案了，這幫人專騙外國人的，沒想到現在開始琢磨國人了。
他告訴了我一切：我的police朋友是這樣闡述作案流程的：
1、 騙子通常都是女性或者老人利用借手機名義，把你手機拿到手，用一種名叫“備備手機號碼備份器”迅速盜取手機號碼，能夠在幾秒鐘內就能將你手機通訊錄的電話號碼和SIM卡裏的電話號碼同時提取，儲存在那個機器裏，衹要將他和手機用手機資料線相連就一眨眼的功夫，你的手機通訊錄就失竊了。
2、 騙子通常會以當事者的名義發簡訊給你通訊錄裏的人行騙，編的故事通常很惡劣，讓被騙方不便打電話求證詢問，一般都是騙男士，說是在異地PC被抓，趕緊匯款過去救命。
3、 作案者通常是收到幾筆款後就登出賬號了。
天呀，聽到這些之後，我崩潰了，趕緊跟我手機裏聯繫人群發了短信，告訴了他們事情經過，別讓他們受騙。最後統計共有9個親朋好友上當受騙了，兩個表弟，兩個同學，一個客戶，四個下屬 。。。共計36萬7千元。。。
現在警方正在追捕嫌疑犯，但是能抓到可能性很小，這些人都是慣犯，很狡猾的。
如果過兩天抓不到，我衹能自己去還這些錢。錢不是最大的問題，關鍵是我這人丟大了，公私所有人都知道這件事了，以訛傳訛說我在外地PC被抓了，被騙了好多錢。。。。。。
朋友們千萬不要把手機借給陌生人了，不要走我的老路，誰找你借手機，都不能借。
剛開始看的時候我還不信，哪有這麼強大的產品，幾秒鐘就能備份出電話號碼？後來一查“備備手機號碼備份器”，果然有啊！簡直是行騙走江湖的必備法寶啊！
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Thank you for exposing this scam. I was searching for similar scams when I came across your blog. I am based in Malaysia.
I received similar scam telephone call from a lady who claimed that she works in a travel agent in Hong Kong, but speaking mainland china accent. A week before, she called saying that she got my mobile number from an international telephone number search facility. Then, she asked me several questions as telemarketers will do, age, marital status, where location like to visit, why. Just simple question. Then, she said that in order to thank the international respondents to their survey, there will be a lucky draw later. She was not pushy, sounded exactly like a normal telemarketer.
Then, only after one week, she called again and congratulated me that i was one of the winners of this lucky draw to South Africa, with monetary prize about HKD350,000. She said some terms and conditions, about how and when to use the money, how to catch a flight to South Africa, who should bear the cost of flight. By that time, I already suspected that there is a scam going on, and asked her to send the details to my yahoo account. By now, she had not done it.
She called me again 3 days later to check if I received the mail, which i just told her that I am not interested. Hopefully she will stop the telephone call for good.
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Thanks Ann for sharing your story! Each comment goes a long way to helping others prepare for the inevitable. If they stop making follow-up calls, it means one thing—that they’re getting exhausted and are slowly running out of steam to choo-choo ahead unless they keep recruiting new callers and dangle new carrots to motivate them.
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Would also like to share my experiences as a “would-be” victim to this sort of scams.
I received a call while working that she is a tele-marketer gathering consumer opinions for their supposedly new store opening at “The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands” this coming June. I didn’t have any interest at first, but decided to go along with her, seeing that it’s just a couple of questions & she wouldn’t call me after this. Upon finishing the questionnaire, she proceeded to give me a Customer number “K2386”, saying that I could get privileges upon mentioning this number at their outlets, mainly in Hong Kong.
The company name she had provided is a “Ya te Mei (in Chinese Pinyin)” departmental store. I had also noted the Chinese accent in her voice to her, with her reason being she was from Taiwan, her company in Hong Kong.
1,2 days later, just before Christmas, the same person called back to notify me of their company’s 10th anniversary celebrations at Times Square, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The celebrations would be graced by local artists which I have heard of & told me that a lucky draw would be conducted that day. I was also informed that the celebrations will be aired on Malaysia’s PPV channels (ASTRO) and told me to look out for it. Of course I didn’t bother about this as I had no business in Malaysia that period & I have no access to ASTRO channels since I reside in Singapore.
After Christmas, or rather just yesterday (27/12/10), I received a call from someone from that company, saying that I have won a prize at that celebrations and did not call them to claim it. The prize? A crystal chandelier worth 1.02 million HKD. She told me that this was the 3rd prize and there was 1 other winner in Malaysia. I was briefed on 2 ways to claim the prize: One being providing a delivery address which they could have the chandelier delivered, the other being returning the chandelier to the sponsor and receiving a Cash Prize of 90% of the chandelier’s value, around SGD150k after conversion.
I chose the second option and the lady proceeded to getting personal details, of which I only stupidly gave my identification number and bank account number. She then double checked the details and informed me that she will pass on this application to her colleague over at the Accounts Department.
Sure enough, within several hours her colleague called to inform receipt of the application and further checked the details. I also had the call put on hold a few moments while she received a call from someone else. The call ended where she promised to call me when the money is wired into the account.
I went home thinking that I would not be this lucky to win such a prize, & yet this didn’t sound like a typical scam from China, or the typical SMS prize winning scam. So I searched around for scams in Hong Kong, leading me to your article. Upon reading your experience, I found similarities and started to think that this IS a scam. I had now just closed my saving accounts (I had planned to anyway) just to prevent any possible legal action, should they actually transfer the prize money to the account.
As a parting note, the same lady called just half an hour earlier to say that the application has not yet been processed, and would call to notify if it did go thorough. I now hope that she doesn’t call back again.
Several numbers that were given to me: 00852 65170147,00852 30622674.
Hope this alerts others who happen to come across this article 🙂
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Hi Chin Chye,
Totally the same membership no. K2386. but mine was 30 Dec 2010 calling me whether i’m free on 31 Dec 2010 ~Countdown 2010.
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Omg mine totally the same. I received a call this morning. They say they held a countdown party at Seletar Singapore on 31st December 2011. My membership number is K3568. The finance manager say she will call me back next week. LOL WTF. What happen in the end? Need ur reply asap thanks.
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What happens in the end is how you want this to end. Ignore it and move on would be the best course of action in my opinion.
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I lately received alot of this phone calls, and at first i really thought i have become luckier, i let them know my chinese name, eng name, ic number and bank account number…i was too foolish to believe im lucky, but i nv submit money as i suspect something is wrong.. With the 4 info i give, what are the potential risk i have
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Hi all, I have encountered this exactly same scam tactic as mentioned above. The first call came in Jan 03 2011 which is to conduct a marketing research for their company as they are looking to bring in the company to invest here in Singapore. That was what they told me,I thought it should be OK since it is just a survey… The second call came in on Thursday 2 weeks ago from the date I posted that there will be a lucky draw event in one of the Malaysian KL’s shopping center on Sunday and was asked to go there for the event,of course I had no time to go there specifically just to attend the event. Immediately after that I was given a pin K37498 for the lucky draw. The third call came in after that lucky draw Sunday on Monday to inform me that I have won SGD 119,000 after deciding to convert the SPA suite into cash prize,I asked them if there will be any MISCELLANEOUS fees involved in order to get the cash deposited into my DBS account, they said NO as this is not allowed in their company so I thought OK and by then I have already given them my NRIC no. and my bank account no.
2 days later,I was rang up again to double my personal particular so they will proceed to process my prize winning to be deposited into my account and I asked them purposely again if there will be any fee involved to help withdraw my winnings and they insisted NO. Finally today, I received another call from them saying the verification is successful so they can now deposit the winnings into my account but before that I have to transfer a tax amount to some dept to release my winnings as the HK govt needs this to hold to prevent dishonest tax payers from running away. Honestly,after hearing this I am truly convinced that this is a scam and will not pay anything. I knew this was a scam when they told me I have won their lucky draw and their “over excited tone” gave them out I knew something was wrong. If you noticed from what I have written above,they insisted that there will not be any need for me to pay any fee in order to get my winnings from the second and the third call, then they did not hold on to their promise and finally asked for a part of the money as tax to be paid to their dept that handles my cash winnings before they will release my winnings How dishonest they are!
That was the last call I had from them, if they call tomorrow I will tell them off and hang up immediately! Before I came upon this blog,I have already knew many scam tactic from different police reports or news articles, so I knew what will happen step by step but I just took sometime to entertain them and see what they will tell me. Even though,I have received many email scam letters before, but this was the first time I have a phone call style scam, so I decide to go along with it. BTW, I never transfer any cent to them…but what will happen to my IC no. and my bank account as I am too stupid to have given them those!
The following are the details of the company: jin hai wan SPA hotel (name in Hanyu Pinyin)
Malaysian prize handling dept personnel: Yang Yu Gui (+6033333100)
HK’s prize winning dept leader: Anne Zhou (+85265278527)
Thanks for reading and hopefully this will help many potentially scam victims! 🙂
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Same thing happened to me. I was silly enough to give them my IC and bank acct number too! Sigh…
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All these telephone scams are usually done by china people and they speak Chinese. They normally target asian people who understand Chinese. And of course from their accents you can tell they are from China.
These few months i also rec’d such phone calls. It started in Dec 2010 which they call and say that their company has selected me for a luck draw and ask if i could go down and the most funny thing is their luck draw is at Hong Kong. Of course, I told them are you crazy I’m at Singapore how could i manage to fly there just for a luck draw. I know is some kind of scam then i just hang up. Few weeks later they call again say that I have been selected by their company for a luck draw again and ask me to come to Wisma Atrium for the luck draw of course i told them sorry i’m not free. And this time, they call again say ask me to watch tv program for the luck draw.
This Monday, they call me again saying they i have won the 3rd prize and if i have watch the tv program. Why i didn’t come and claim the money after so many months. And of course, i ask them how they get my details, they say if i have bought electric products and return the warranty card. They said that since they want to enter Singapore market so they conduct this luck draw to get attention. They also get my details from the warranty card. Of course, I don’t believe them. 1st of all, in Singapore when would we ever write Chinese for any warranty card, NEVER,we normally all fill in English. So how would they have my Chinese name. ????
This lady would speak as if she is like your friend asking how you would spend the money. She started to ask for my details and bank a/c. I told her you are a scam. She says no I’m not, I’m not even asking for a single sum from you. Of course, I must be alert, so i gave her a fake details just in case. Especially when you hear the other side is a china woman calling you and telling you so many things which have loops hole. So I ask her so if that’s the case when can i get the money? she says if tomorrow will you believe. I say if it’s not a scam then i believe. So of course she says she says she is not a scam and trust her company. Open since 1996. Shang li International company.
The next hour, her accounts manager call me but very funny the voice sounds exactly the same as her and the way of talking is the same. Of course I don’t say it out. So she told me she will process the prize and say that the price money will be telegraph to my a/c the next day. And ask me to carry my bank book so that once it telegraph she will call me and i can go n check my bank book.
The next day she called me again which I’m busy so i ask her to call back later. She of course say there is some problem with the telegraph like what you have seen with all the post. She said that Hong Kong has this law that if lucky draw money above HK$500k need to have a written letter by lawyer in order to withdraw out of Hong Kong so that it proved that it is not money laundering. And she added that if it is for business, personal then you don’t need the letter. And I need to just wire to the lawyer 4.5% of the money for deposit and of course the money I’ll get it back after the letter is out. Of course all these all bull shit. Just to cheat people. So i tested her if i fly over to Hong Kong to claim the money do i still need to pay the 4.5%deposit? she says yes. So I ask her since the cap is at HK$500k and my winning is HK$600k. I’m willing to forgo HK$200k so that i don’t need to pay for the deposit. She says she can’t do that. I told her which company wouldn’t be happy if their winner willing to forgo part of the winning. Then she insist that I don’t believe her.
I just straight away tell her my friend who is in hong kong that there isn’t any law stated that i need any documents nor deposit in order to get my winning in lucky draws. She straight away says that which part of Hong Kong my friend is in. I told her does that matter. She again say that i don’t believe her. I told her why not you give me your company name in English. She started to panic and say it is shang li international(pinyin). I repeat to her again I want you company name in English and spell it to me. She started to spell to me and funny thing is what kind of name is this (cripl forcd international) ????? It doesn’t even tele to the Chinese name and what kind of company name is that.
Then I told her what you are doing is just a scam and i have read news articles exactly like what you are doing. So stop calling me and other people. I’m going to call the police. She was not afraid and she insist that i do not believe her. I had enough of her so I just hang up on her. She didn’t dare to call after that.
Today my mum also encounter telephone scam but this time is a china man calling say that my mum’s father is sick and need money. So ask her to telegraph $$ to him. And my mum told him oh is it my father is sick so he used a telephone to call you in heaven to ask me to burn him some $$. And the guy soon realize that it doesn’t work and hang up. By the way my grandfather die 11 years ago.
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SCAMS IN USA AND CANADA
Tuul Donoloi: tuult2t@yahoo.com
Ernest hans Wolfberg
OLIVIA HEILMANN
ADDRESS: AUMATTSTRASSE 103
4152 REINACH
SWITZERLAND
TEL:+41-445-863-184
E-MAIL: oliviaheilmann@ymail.com
Email: oliviaheilmann@ymail.com
Email: wolfbergernesthans@yahoo.ca
Email: tuult2t@yahoo.com
Tuul Donoloi
tuuldonoloi3@att.net
wolfbergernesthans@yahoo.ca
Mr. Olivia Heilmann: oliviaheilmann@ymail.com
Ernest hans Wolfberg / wolfbergernesthans@yahoo.ca/ Tuul Donoloi: tuult2t@yahoo.com and Mr. Olivia Heilmann/ oliviaheilmann@ymail.com
ate: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 06:04:07 -0800
From: tuuldonoloi3@att.net
Subject: From Miss Tuul Donoloi
To:
From Miss Tuul Donoloi
Hello dearest one,
I am miss Tuul Donoloi.i need you to help me transfer the some of (11.5 million dollars) which was deposited in bank by my late father before he died to your account, which he used my name as the next of kin to the money, now i want to relocate to your country to finish my masters degree and also investment of the money while you will be the manager of the investment as i don,nt know any body in your country,i will offer you 20% of the total money and also 5% for any expenses you made because there most be a little expenses for the changing of ownership of the money to your name before the bank can transfer the money to your account, all the deposit documents of this money will be send across to you as soon as i hear from you.and i will be attaching my CV and my passport copy with my pics for you to know that am very serious with you and to know whom you are dealing with when i hear from you.
I will be waiting for your soonest reply as soon as possible and may God bless you so much.
Yours Sincerely
Miss Tuul Donoloi.
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 17:13:38 -0800
From: tuul104@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:From Miss Tuul Donoloi
Dear,
I am single and religion does not matter ok. i am here by sending you all the details regards to this fund transfer. You do have to send me your personal details because it’s very important, everything is clear and legal, regarding financing, i don’t think there will be much money that will be request from the bank in Canada to finance this transaction, you have to also know that the fund is in a private bank in Canada, if there will be any money then we have to know how to reguate it, i do asked the bank in Canada and they told me there is nothing like certificate that will be needed, the transfer is legal and can be made by the bank in Canada via KTT swift transfer to your bank account, if any one told you that you need to IMF certificate tell the person that it’s lie, legal bank transfer is very simple, my late father deposited this fund on a good arrangement with the bank and there is nothing ilegal in this, so what you will do is just contact the bank in Canada with these information’s bellow this message and request for the transfer, There is nothing like anti terrorism or drug certificate, the bank in Canada will send you the transfer confirmation slip once they effect the transfer to your bank account, it’s legal and will cover the fund from your government, so don’t worry about that. But what i want you to know is that there is so many bad people in the world today, please so send me your details as well, and kindly use these information’s and contact the bank in Canada, Attached is my personal information’s. I thank you so much and will be waiting your response.
Here is the information’s i needed from you.
1)YOUR FULL NAME;
2) ADDRESS, CITY, STATE AND COUNTRY:
3) PERSONAL CELL PHONE, FAX AND MOBILE:
4) COMPANY NAME (IF ANY) POSITION AND ADDRESS:
YOUR ACCOUNTANT ~ owner
5) BANK NAME:
6) BANK ADDRESS:
7) ACCOUNT NUMBER:
8) ROUTING NUMBER OR SWIFT CODE NO:
9) OCCUPATION, AGE AND MARITAL STATUS:
10) COPY OF YOUR INT’L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENCE:
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….
And here is the bank contacts
Director International Fund Transfer:
Mr Ernest Hans Wolfberg.
Télex & Account Département.
Caisse Centrale des Jardins.
Adresse:3 boul. de la selette
st-Jérome Québec Canada
J7Y0C8
Tel : +1-407-392-5967
Fax: +1-416-980-3754 .
Mail direct: (wolfbergernesthans@yahoo.ca )
DEPOSIT RÉFÉRENCE:
Depositor name: Anthony Donoloi.
Passport Number: A0160114.
Account number: 0985200563301164.
Date of deposit: 18/08/2008.
Amount deposited: USD$11,500,000.Million.
Deposit code: 475684.
Référence :Donloi/00LPC
Thanks and God bless you as am waiting for your soonest reply.
Yours
Miss Tuul Donoloi.
Estimados,
Recibí tu mail y te lo agradezco, estoy sola y la religión no se puede importar. estoy aquí con el envío de todos los detalles respecto a esta transferencia de fondos. Tú me tienes que enviar tus datos personales, ya que es muy importante, todo está claro y legal, en materia de financiación, yo no creo que haya mucho dinero que se solicite al banco en Canadá para financiar esta transacción, usted tiene que También sabemos que el fondo está en un banco privado de Canadá, si habrá algún dinero, entonces tenemos que saber cómo reguate, me pidió hacer el banco en Canadá y me dijeron que no hay nada como el certificado que será necesario, la transferencia es legal y se puede hacer por el banco en Canadá a través de la transferencia de KTT rápida a su cuenta bancaria, si alguien te dijo que necesita certificado FMI decirle a la persona que es mentira, transferencia bancaria legal es muy sencillo, mi difunto padre depositados en este fondo un buen arreglo con el banco y no hay nada ilegal en esto, así que lo que va a hacer es ponerte en contacto con el banco en Canadá con estas informaciones abajo de este mensaje y la solicitud de la transferencia, no hay nada como la lucha contra el terrorismo o las drogas certificado, el banco en Canadá le enviará la confirmación de la transferencia de deslizamiento, una vez que efectuar la transferencia a su cuenta bancaria, es legal y cubrirá el fondo de su gobierno, así que no te preocupes por eso. Pero lo que quiero que sepas es que hay gente mala para muchos en el mundo de hoy, así que por favor me envíen sus datos, así, y la amabilidad de utilizar estas informaciones y contacto con el banco en Canadá, que se adjunta es mi información personal. Les agradezco mucho y le estaremos esperando su respuesta.
Aquí está la información de i necesita de usted.
1) su nombre completo;
2) DIRECCIÓN, CIUDAD, ESTADO Y PAIS:
3) teléfono celular personal, FAX Y MÓVIL:
4) NOMBRE DE LA EMPRESA (SI) POSICIÓN Y DIRECCIÓN:
SU CONTADOR ~ propietario
5) Nombre del banco:
6) DIRECCIÓN DEL BANCO:
7) NÚMERO DE CUENTA:
8) NÚMERO DE RUTA O CODIGO SWIFT NO:
9) ocupación, edad y estado civil:
10) Copia de su pasaporte INTERNACIONAL / LICENCIA DE CONDUCIR:
………………………………………….. ………………………………………….. ………………
………………………………………….. ………………………………………….. ………………
Y aquí está el banco de contactos
Director del Fondo de Transferencia Internacional:
Hans Ernest Wolfberg.
Télex y departamento de cuentas.
Caisse Centrale des Jardins.
Dirección: 3 boul. de la selette
Canadá Quebec st-Jérome
J7Y0C8
Tel: +1-407-392-5967
Fax: +1-416-980-3754.
Correo directo: (wolfbergernesthans@yahoo.ca )
DEPÓSITO DE REFERENCIA:
nombre del depositante: Anthony Donoloi.
Número de pasaporte: A0160114.
Número de cuenta: 0985200563301164.
Fecha de depósito: 18/08/2008.
Monto depositado: USD $ 11500000 millones..
código de Depósito: 475684.
Référence: Donloi/00LPC
Gracias y que Dios los bendiga estoy esperando su respuesta lo más pronto posible.
El tuyo
Miss Donoloi Tuul.
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I think I would like to share my experience as well. It’s about a year ago where I received a market survey call from a mandarin speaking lady.
I was told to be given VIP invitation to a charity function in one of the renown hotel in Macau and there will be a draw on that day. Afterwhich, I was given a code as a passport.
So I kindly reply I can’t attend.
A few days later, the lady called back and asked if I have attended the Charity function.
I was told I had won the second prize amount to $100,000 and it’s broadcast in Macau TV and wonder if I have seen it.
Of course by logic no.
So they ask for my particulars for verification and then ask for my bank account to deposit the amount.
They even give me the Hongkong bank number and even told me they have hired a famous Hongkong lawyer to take care of the international transaction. At that time, I could hear background of phone ringing and ladies picking up…sound like a hotel to me.
It is so professional that it literally looks credible….and soon I received a call from the ‘lawyer..”
He began to introduce himself and like a lawyer, he mentioned that this call is recorded and everything mention on the phone have legal implications. So he began to ask a series of questions and all I have to answer is yes or no.
Just like the movie, it sounds so professional like a lawyer!
Finally, they asked the same thing about transfer of money and the 4.3% fee like what is mentioned in this thread. I was even given the website with their picture when I began to question the truth and verification of this lottery win.
It seems whatever I ask for they are able to give. The only thing I cannot verify if this event really takes place overseas.
To cut the story short, I called the commercial criminal department and I was called to go to their office for help in investigation.
The officer there then explained the implications and a few things have to take note.
Don’t give your particulars and your bank account number. They can be used for money laundering activities. And if there is illegal laundering activities in your bank account, you can be liable to criminal charges. I can’t remember the full details but it means putting yourself at risk for illegal activities…
So don’t give out your bank account number….and your particulars.
I hope my personal experience can help warn and expose these scams. Nowadays they are so professional that I would not be surprised if some will buy into it.
In fact, 2 days ago, I received a call about winning a lucky draw in a mobile promotion in Singapore which I could not verify as well. I was told I won a 6 day trips to a resort.
Haha…hopefully can find a way to identify these people and get them caught.
Regards,
Jerry
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Hi, this was in 2007? I wonder whether anyone will read my post. Even it is long ago, your blog is good to me.
This year, 2011, I also just faced similar case. As I am fresh university graduate still looking for job, I always answer my phone call very quickly despite the number shown, hoping that it will be my prospective employer. But one day, I received a call about market survey. It is quite normal. I did not think much about it. She said our company wanted to expand into Singapore. The next call I received about week later, I was further questioned and she thanked me and said the company will offer me some discount for the spa as gratitude. She also gave me a lottery ticket number. She also said there would also be some promotion event at some shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday and Ah Niu is also invited. As I am in Singapore, I said it s inconvenient for me just to go there for the event. She said “never mind, it s OK”.
On Sunday afternoon (27 March 2011), I received a call. This time, it is a Man. He said, “Congratulations. You won the third prize. Can you make it to the event in KL? ” Of course, I did not go. Just two days ago (28 March 2011), I got the call from the same guy. This time is a long conversation. He said that I have won 3rd prize, it is a home spa equipment and they can send people to install at my house. However, if the bathroom is too small, I can choose to have cash of $110,000 instead. This makes it more suspicious. He asked me my bank account number. Luckily, I did not have my bank book with me and could not remember my number. I told him to call me later. The next day, I quickly browsed the Google for information on this kind of call. Till now, he still has not called me but I know that he will call me again soon.
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Thank you for sharing your experience! Since Nov 21, 2007 this post has registered a total of 12,994 page views so rest assured that your story is picked up by anyone who is cautious and care about their family and friends being ripped off.
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Since Year 2009 I had gotten these calls from HK (normally pvt no).
I had emailed to HKMonetary Authority and received reply from them.
Given that the HKMA does not have investigation power over criminal cases,
if you believe you have been a victim of a scam, you are advised to contact
your local police or the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) direct. The
contact details of CCB are:
Commercial Crime Bureau
Telephone: (852) 2860-5012
Email: crimeinformation@police.gov.hk
FYI
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Got the same call from Asia Pacific Travelling Group. His name is Jeff Koo and working on that company from Malaysia. Told me that i won a second price of $150,000.00. He told me to call the organizer in Hongkong, Isaac Lau, Finance Manager and needed to verify my documents. The accountant, Cristopher Kong told me that i need to pay ($3,000.00) 2% taxe from the winning price before they can wire transfer to my bank in Guam. I told them that i can only pay the taxes after i received the winning price because I don’t have money. Jeff Lau told me that their company can help me and they will shoulder the $2000 and I will pay the $1000. I will not entertain any calls from them anymore. Thanks for the sharing.
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Thanks guys for sharing on your story ~ it really helped ppl when they have doubt.
My Story : (Sorry if wrong spelling, conversation was in Mandarin)
May 11, 2011
Got a call from a Chinese gal, that talk in Mandarin. She said she is from “Duno what Jewelery Company” (Don’t really pay attention to what she said) asking for my name. Starting to said that on May 14, 2011 at Pertama Complex KL have a promo event which have lucky draw, cat walk and blah blah blah. Then she giv me a code “HKxxxxx” said this code can get me in the event as invitation. She ask will I be going ? I just simple answer Maybe…it is in KL, but I’m in….(dun really tell her where I’m from since she still keep talking about the events program.
May 18, 2011 (Long conversation)
Got another call from a Chinese gal, (cant recall is it the same person). She said she is from JinBoYa (International) Jewellery company. Asking my name again, and asking did I rmb got ppl called u about the events that held on May 14, 2011 in KL ? (In mind…I was like…oh that one) I replied, yes..but I didn’t attend. Then she started to talk about the event program again. Then the “happy” news come…she said I won a second price which is “Luxury Cruise” worth 1,000,000 HKD (WoW..which is around 300K++ MYR)
Said there is a guy win the price as well, and collected it on the spot. Since I’m not attending the event. So their company will tax it then bcome 850,000 HKD. Ask me if I can go to their company to collect it. I ask where your company? She located in Hong Kong. Then I ask is it necessary to go until HK to collect. She said you can give us ur Bank Acct#. Then she ask how much do u know about our company ? I answer “Not at ALL”. Then she starting to intro her company said HK, Singapore, etc also have, but now they want to expand to M’sia. Then she provide me a link to their company website (www.jinboya.net) I was thinking “.net” a domain? An International company using .net ? I go into the website and look for detail. OK, there are some info/photo about Jewelery with price as well. But no place for u to click “BUY” / “ADD TO CART” ?
Then I google up on “Jinboya”. Surprisingly there are no other link regarding this. Only the jinboya.net available. She ask me to check the website and keep asking me to know more about their company. And encourage me to go HK to collect my price. (Why she want me to go HK? and to know more about their company before go to collect price?)
I ask is there any due date for the price? She said depend on the sponsors, if sponsor take it back then it gone. She won’t sure when the due date. She said their company very fair, by hold on the price for me. . On the same time still keep ask me to go further understd their company before go HK to collect. Ask me to decide weather want to go to HK myself or provide them bank acct#.
Before hang up, she ask me still got any questions for her? (I just said not for now as I’m still trying to digest what she said and wanted to ask frens to comment on this). She said can contact her at the contact number in the website if have any questions or made decision. (00852—51036250).
After ended the call, I started my research.
Suspicious points
1) International Co website = .net
2) Google returned result incredibly few (just the one http://www.jinboya.net was found, others not Jewelery co)
3) Website not very detail – just some simple intro and not updates since March 2010 and NO Shopping cart.
4) The website design quite similar to the website posted by Jan Shim. (first look alrd know saw it somewhere)
5) Really got company so “GOOD” hold the 1,000,000 HKD price for the winner. Which the winner dun even know they did win it?
Hope this help. Sorry for all the short form as it is quite long story.
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I’ve got the call from HK saying that they are calling from Hua Chen company. It’s one of the automotive company in China. I was stupid enough to gave them my ic no and DOB but afterall it looks suspicious. Tried to call back with the no but can’t get it thru. She never asked for any kind of money required and even warn me for such kind of scam. Believe that they cant do anything with my ic no. Hope that no one will believe them.
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Today, I received in my mail, “Notification of $20,500.00 Guaranteed Payment” from National Prize Depository. Currency Deposits Divison is a division of National Prize Depository.” Hong Kong. The information says that I am the only person in the Confirmed Payment Status who has not already been paid. There is a form at the bottom of this communication called “Required Payout Form” which is a contest of skill: You are to circle the correct answer to: 9×20=160, 180, or, 170. Now, just how stupid is that? Then you return this form with $12.00, which is not a lot of money for sure but it they send out 10,000 of these repeatedly it would amount to a tidy sum!! Coming from Hong Kong, I was suspicious from the start! You can choose to get the money in 1, 2, 3, or 4 payments–or the full $25,000.00 in a lump-sum payment.
By the way, there was no return address anywhere on the return envelope even there was advice printed that in the event delivery could be made, return to Currency Deposits Div., “so that we may take the necessary action” The enclosed envelope for sending them your $12.00 was directed to: C/O DML, P>O> Box 6286, G.P.O. Hong Kong. The sad part about this is many people will fall for it because it is such a small amount of money to send them…..but we know if they do it, they will get the full treatment about taxes on the amount ot their $25,000.00 or some sort of effort to collect more money than the $12.00. Just thought I’d bring this to your attention in case you are not aware of it — I will send this scam letter to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Criminal Investigations Service Center, ATTN: Mail Fraud, 222 S. Riverside Plaza, Suite 1250, Chicago , IL 60606-6100. Or a person can contact them on line at postalinspectors, upis.gov.
I think I might copy their NOTIFICATION, AND RETURN IT TO THEM WITH A STICKY NOTE ON THE FRONT; DROP DEAD YOU S.O.B.”S. (I usually don’t use that kind of language!!!!)
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I almost trust them til i got to this web. Thank guys for reminding. The procedure they use are almost the same. Just to think about winning money by doing a survey, it is totally naive and stupid of me to actually believe them in the first place. Just hope they would not use my account no. and do something funny. I really regret i give my account number to them.
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omg it is still happening up to now. too long to tell but same thing happened to me. im glad i did not send anything as i was hesitant about this. Im glad to see this site. Thanks Jan.Can someone pls do something their number used to call is 1 600 903 1021 and their number provided is 0085281763615 supervisor is catherine yap and other rep is michael yee and the other is mr. lee
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they also got my id (driver license) so i am scared they might use it. The bank use is Hang Seng Bank and i did e-mailed them so they will be aware and these scammers used the company name as lifestyle tourism group/ uses logo of “lifestyle International Holdings, Ltd.” but none of their names appeared to that ltd so they are just misleading people.
I told scammers i will use my winnings to pay my dads debts and sister’s debts and so as my debts from hospital.
Somebody pls do something.
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Hi Vennis,
As I understand, others have given out bank account numbers and I highly doubt that anything undesirable is going to happen with your driver’s license info other than anger, frustration and embarrassment. You may want to report this incident to an authority that handles fraud cases so you have proper closure.
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Geez people, I’m from Singapore and got the same call just recently too.
This lady told me that she’s from a travel agency in Hong Kong, and proceeded to do a survey which I find that it’s harmless so went along with it. After the survey was done over the phone, she told me to tune it to Phoenix Channel on a particular day and timing to watch their programme. However, I obviously didn’t.
Then, a few days later, she rang me up again and informed me that I had won a lottery/lucky draw that she had helped enter me in with my details she got from me in the first call. Next, she started rambling on about what I’ve won, telling me how lucky I am, and what I must do to claim the prize. And according to her, I’ve won the 2nd grand prize, which is HKD 1,000,000 and equivalent to approximately SGD 108,000.
At that point of time, I was extremely skeptical and doubt that I’d won that prize which she claimed I did. Nevertheless, she called me the very next day, and told me that she’d need my name, DOB, I/C & a/c number. I gave her, but I think that it should be alright, since they wouldn’t be able to do anything with those. Also, I should be fine as long as I don’t transfer/wire any funds to them.
Soon, I started to do some research of my own and found out that this was indeed a scam. The voice of the girl is exactly the same as this girl in the video below:
She told me that she’d have to verify with the Hong Kong authorities that are incharge of all these overseas transaction of cash or something like that. I guess she’ll probably call me up again tomorrow, telling me how it isn’t able to go through and I’d have to wire money to an account, Still thinking of how I should bust her,lol. ^^
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Sliveritz, I also experienced the exact same thing as you did! But she only contacted me recently after calling me initially in Nov-Dec. I am surprised she is so persistent. But I think her patience is wearing dry with me. Hopefully she will give up and stop calling.
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The caller’s patience is wearing thin or is her persistence wearing you out. I’m surprised you even entertain here. I still occasionally receive calls from them – their mainland Chinese accent is so strong, so easy to tell – I just hang up. They usually don’t bother to call back. There’s really no reason you should engage in any conversation with them.
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Her patience is wearing thin cos she hung up on me! I actually did believe what she said, even though I had my doubts. It was until I came across your blog today after quarreling with her over the phone about everything being a scam that I decided that she was really just trying to con me. So, thanks for blogging about your experience!
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The wisest thing to do now is to educate more people about this scam and your personal experience. There are still many more unsuspecting victims these crooks are targeting to scam. Feel free to forward this link along with your words of caution to family and friends. You cannot ignore the number of comments/reactions this post has generated from victims worldwide.
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how can we stop this scammer I know what the best thing to do to them is fine them and island and put all the scammer together let them look for ther on food ther let them live ther all along the Gov should try and do that so they can stop herting good people that’s they work so herd for ther money I think when the Gov do that they will think twist befor they do it again
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alot of people know about Benjamin & Ryan Holding about there Scam what can we do to stop them from doing it again like they said they don’t care about other people what they say because there not. member on there company if that how they can keep there company going they will keep doing it scaming other people and herting them like what I said be for catch them and put them on one Island only for the scammer see if they like it to be hert not seeing there family or frainds I wish our Gov will do something about it caust it not really nice the company of Benjamin &Ryan holding and sand torism grow from scam and people pain and I know they going to keep going everytime they going down
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is there a way I can send you the documented
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Alby, whatever evidence you may have with regards to the scam you have knowledge of, I am not an enforcement authority on such matters. As frustrated as you may be, the best thing you can possibly do is proactively inform as many friends and family members you have so they don’t fall victim to these scams. The idea here is prevention.
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will I really don’t understand we were all doing ok and good in our country until they stard coming to our island and stard scamming our island to hert us when they done scamming it they send a picture to there company in Hong Kong and tell them that they have a good place to steal there soul and scam there life away why cause we live in a small island that they thing were nobody but when they need a job they come to our Island and work here I think they just doing it just to see what kind if people are we and they send the info back to Hong Kong and said yes this is a good place to scam this people that why Benjamin And Ryan Holding when for it before someone eles go befor him you know when they came hear we all help them and make them feel like home and this how they treat us they just use us to get info from us is this how Hong Kong look at us well if you see the company of Benjamin and Ryan Holding tell them to save there people
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Hi,
I would like to share my experience.
I received a call from 852-3069-7379, someone called ‘Tarn Mei Huei’ to inform about an event in Pavilion/BB Plaza KL on 6 April 2012. Said they were holding a promo event on 7-8 April 2012. Given me a code, asking me to claim for souvenirs from the counter. I just ignored it.
She called again on 11.04.2012 (11am, 2pm). Informing that I was one of the lucky winners, winning a luxury travel package to Europe for 17 days, 4 pax. Asked me to check out their website http://www.mirobuy.com and taught me over the phone to log in with their pre-set account ID and password to see the announcement on the winners list.
Told me that instead of travel package, could opt for cash wish is about RM90K. Asked me to decide quickly.
The caller is very professional that she tried to explain why I was eligible for the lucky draw despite not present in the event. When asked about how they get my contact number, they claimed that it’s from their business partner. She stressed that their company will be opening their first branch in Malaysia in BB Plaza (i think).
She asked for my name, ID no and bank account no. When I asked her to email to me the form, she refused, claiming that it must be done by them.
I asked her to call back the next day, which of course she did.
I told her, I wish to donate the money anonymously.
She said I still need to get the money transferred to my account first prior to donating. Then she started to question me on my doubts n belief. I asked for their company registration number, she hesitated. She assured me that it’s a legal company, and they are not charging me anything and not to be worried. At the end, she told me 6053887 is their company registration number. I made a nother quick check on this http://www.icris.cr.gov.hk/csci/ and confirmed mirobuy non existence.
To cut the story short, there is no free lunch in the world. If such a huge company is making such a huge promotional campaign, how come there is no coverage online? No facebook account? Nothing..
By the way, I did wasted some times looking for info on the company, their website is all in Chinese and difficult to be navigated. many of the links are broken/not working.
Enough of wasting time on this company, I am writing to share this experience.
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Hi this is Dhana and iam getting mails from kimkyr@kyunglawfirm.cn inviting for a Project in IRAQ i am worried that these are a SCAM mails please help.
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Hi Dhana, the domain returned a “Server not found | Firefox can’t find the server at http://www.kyunglawfirm.cn“
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Just to let you guys know. Just a moment ago, i received call from a person name ” wang lee ting” (number: 858 3075 6260″ saying i won 2nd prize on some bull-crap event. Their method is actually quite professional
They planned the whole thing months ago.
1.) Call for a survey
2.) Invite you to their event.
3.) Saying that if u are not free, u can catch their programme live on TV on some channel.
4.) Saying you won either 1st/2nd/3rd prize
5.) Asking for ur IC number and bank account.
Well unlike the previous case, they now ‘invite’ you to their company in hong kong to claim your prize. But still everything seem so fake.
So guys just beware.
There is no free lunch in the world.
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hi guys,
we just received winning ticket from malaysia the company name is TunesTravelling website is http://www.tunestravelling.com it was send to our post box in our place and addressed to my husband name.
my husband’s got US$160,000 we check the website and the phone number the company is real, they said that we got the winning ticket because we always travel with AirAsia.
and when my husband wants to claim the prize they ask my husband the detail and bank account, and they ask my husband to call platinum sponsor of the event is in hongkong called Jacky & Steven Limited which is real their website is http://www.jslimited-hk.com everything seems real phone number and etc, and man named Daniel behalf of Tunes Travelling rever my husband to call Jack & Steve Limited Company which is in hong kong, if you guys see the website they are real but when my husband call Hong Kong and speak to person named Andrew Chu behalf of Jacky & Steven Limited (the contact number is as seen on website)he ask money AU$3,500 the reason is exactly the same :
” 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 …”
my husband curious coz we are not in Hong Kong so we don’t know is that true or not, and logically person who win something will not pay anything.
My husband call the tunes travelling and say that
‘we happy to win that’s lot of money coz we struggle with our life…and will changes our life little bit, so if we dont have a money so we cant win that prize though?!!”
and the person said that ” ooo…i will do something about it …im not promise you but i will try…” and until now he didnt call my husband back….this is happen this mont MAy 2012…and last call from them it was yesterday 24 May 2012.
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Hi there! This post could not be written any better!
Reading through this post reminds me of my previous room mate!
He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him.
Pretty sure he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
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Dear Jan Shim,
I am Zoe from Singapore. My mother have remitted money to the scammer. It is almost the entire same scam case with the acc no. UOB 33360050861, name TAN YEE LOON NRIC 870412085581 MALAYSIAN IC. Same tactic as yours.
My mother STILL does not believe that she has gotten scammed.
I am writing to ask you what did you write to CIMB bank in order for them to provide this detail that this is the scammer. I really need the confirmation to show my mother that she got scammed so that we can cancel the remittance. Really thank you for posting this online.
I hope you can get back to me through email asap. I am determined to put this scammer behind bars.
Regards,
Zoe.
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Hey Zoe,
What I did and exactly what you should do immediately is to contact the Fraud division of UOB and have them check out the account holder. If this is happening often enough chances are the bank has him on high alert. Fortunately for me, CIMB responded to my email quickly, warning me against remitting money.
All the best.
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Hi There.
Please be AWARE of the following SCAMS from TUDOR GROUP Hong Kong, RACS CONSULTING New York, and last but not least YANG FINANCIAL LIMITED of BEIJING.
I have been approached on all of them in the past year about Acquisition of a company that I have in. Hope this can be of some help to anyone in the future.
Regards L.P.M.
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C says:
Hi there,
I received a call from someone called ‘Tian Mei Yuan’ to inform about an event in KL on 29 September 2012 and invite me to attend but i just ignored it.
She called again on yesterday informing that I was one of the lucky winners, winning a luxury travel package to Europe for 15 days, 4 pax. Asked me to check out their website http://www.aslbuy.com and taught me over the phone to log in with their pre-set account ID and password to see the announcement on the winners list.She told me that instead of travel package, could opt for cash wish is about RM150K. Asked me to decide quickly.
She asked for my name, ID no and bank account no. When I asked her to email to me the form, she refused, claiming that it must be done by them.So later i give her all the detail.
Later the other girls call “Yang Siew Jian” call and verified my name & id to double confirm and she said the fund will be in process.
Then today i receive her call said that they had send the money to Hong Kong bank and on the way to transfer my fund but need me to get an approval from the high court and also need to pay some money.
I refuse to do so and she was angry and ask me to think back how to settle the money. So I ask her to donate to the Charity fund but she say cannot and will call me later.
Thanks god i see all your message then understand it was a spam.
I really thanks for your info in here and teach me to be carefully with all these spam.
Later if she call i will ignore it.
Regards
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Recently some thing similar happened to mi, say they r frm xin da le company or watever and they r opening a new resort in malaysia. They invited mi to the event at malaysia but i didnt attend since im in sg. They also tell mi to go to some Tv channel to watch the event. After a few wks they called mi n say i won some watch and i can choose to get cash which is around $19,2000 sgd. They tell mi to provide bank acc and my particulars and now they tell mi to call 852 3050 1889 to this hong kong bank and they will transfer the $$ to my acc.
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Anshengkang Technology Limited in Hongkong is scammer. They contact with me to introduce their products, give me lisence of certificate. Then after I send money to them, they did not give goods back to me. I’ve lost money, anyone in Hongkong who has cheated by them or can help me, pls help me to contact with them. Pls inform to all your friends.
Here is their contact:
anshengkang Technology Limited.
Lisence: 1637101
ROOM 1705( A ), 15/F., 38 PLAZA SHAN TUNG STREET,MONGKOK, KOWLOON,
Contact: Josie
Tel: 00852-51018397 Mobile: 86-15018918397
Add:ROOM 1705(A), 15/F., 38 PLAZA SHAN TUNG STREET,MONGKOK, KOWLOON, HONG KONG
MSN:anshengkang@hotmail.com Email:josie@anshengkang.com Skype: anshengkang
Pls warning it!!!
Thanks
Anyone that have information about this company or has cheated by them, pls contact me via email vukimdung3011@gmail.com
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Has anyone closed a deal with a company called IGA-capital holdings in Hong Kong?
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Delores… I am based in Sydney Australia and I own and operate an investigative business. We specialise in matter involving acts cyber crime; fraud and threats by persons against our end clients. It is important to realise there are over 1.6 Billion internet users here on the internet daily, and at least 30 million claim they are Trading as so called Sellers, Buyers / Mandates or Facilitators. It is important for you to note there has been a 21% increase in acts of cyber crime since 2009 by transnational criminals.
Therefore basically in any intelligence gathering, we first commence the DD process / security check which are no different to those conducted by government agencies / banking platforms to ensure the businesses and persons they have dealings with are not involved in criminal activity. Therefore running checks on all names be it the Seller or Buyer and all brokers. This is to verify beyond reasonable doubt whether they are person known to the authorities for acts of cyber crime. These security checks are used to verify whether the company is authorised or unauthorised; registered to use that name or to conduct that sort of business and whether they have a street address in that country.
Unfortunately after 27 years 91% of all our investigation have revealed more people here on the internet are using un authorised non registered business names as mere window dressings, basically with the aim to be deceitful.
Therefore all I can say at this time have been asked to investigate IGA Capital Holdings International which is supposedly located in Mongkok, Kowloon, in Hong Kong. At this time we have been unable to establish whether they are really a registered to operate as a company!
They are definitely not registered in US, HK, NZ, Australia or HK. We have found no company officers being CEO / President operating IGA as a business platform. There is no IGA Office or actual street address in HK at this time. Therefore ask yourself why they would any of the following list of Investors on their web page would have dealings with a non transparent company.
Delores if you wish to get to the truth contact not one but select say 5 of the so called Investors; maybe start with the Bank of China’s HO in HK and speak with the proper person direct… ask them if they are one of IGA’s Investors.
I strongly believe at this time IGA and the person’s names associated IGA as follows: Joffrey Williams known as Dr. Charles Helf or Helfingstone and his associates Dr Robert Stone are not real. If you believe their business practices are deceptive in any way or that your client or you have personally experienced them acting in an improper manner contact your local Federal Authorities and place a complaint.
Best of luck…
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BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!
A Hong Kong registered, Australian based company called Glamour Nail Vending has smartly and successfully used the tools of the trade to trick many a businessmen around the world to part with their monies with the promise of delivering and allowing to operate their patented and state-of-the-art nail art vending machine. Appearing in trade shows around the world with their demo machines and advertising through front-line business and social media web sites and sales calls, they have impressed many into believing that their machines could generate incomes that would potentially pay off the cost of the machine in a year thereby promising super-profits in the future. While all this looks very doable and achievable given the size of the nail art consumer industry combined with the “state-of-the-art” nail art vending machine the reality is shocking and nerve-racking.
For over 18 months distributors and operators have been appointed in many cities, states and countries around the world paying several millions of dollars into the Australian bank account of this company and not one machine is commercially installed and operable till date. Many reasons have been already given for their non-delivery and lately the emails and phone calls from the distributors are not being answered. Is the writing of a mega-SCAM already on the wall?
Lawsuits have been filed for the recovery of the monies from the company and police complaints are being lodged with the New South Wales (Australia) Police.
The people behind the company, Kelly Hannah (Director), Daniel Hanna (Director), Brian Farrell, Richard Oster (Distributor Relations), David Ford (Sale and Training) work well as a team to make it all appear real.
If you happen to meet any of the above please be sure to stay away from them and run for the door. Better still call you local police and report their presence in your motherland.
Please share this with all you know. We need to help protect each other from such scumbags that are a slur to mankind.
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do you know what is the amount paid for the distributors licence?
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Yes it’s 2013 and the SAME thing is still going on (and I still fell prey to it!!) I’m from Singapore.
It’s a VERY well-planned scam. I received a call last month from a private number to do a market survey on electronics. Told me their company is opening a branch in Singapore hence the need for market survey etc etc. Informed me that there’ll be an event by their company the following Saturday at Ngeeann City and there’s a lucky draw on that day itself. Gave me my lucky draw number and asked for my name. Simple enough!
Needless to say I forgot about this entire episode and didn’t turn up for it. Today I received a call (it must have been about a month since the previous, wow!) asking if I recall doing the survey a month ago and all. Informed me I won Second Prize in the lucky draw, some 25 day travel cruise for my entire family valued up to 660k HKD. My scam-alert instincts kicked in and I tried to reject everything politely. She realised I was pretty defensive and changed her tone a bit. She very patiently chatted with me, like REALLY CHATTED – told me about how she loves travelling and how good the cruise is, told me she’s Taiwanese and went to hk to work etc. I kept telling her 25 days is too long, I can’t take a 25 days leave from work! Finally she relented and offered another option – a cash award 80% of the cash value of said tour package.
I have to say I am aware of such phone scams hence my initial resistance towards her. Everything seems TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. Nonetheless I played along and she was very very friendly. Slowly I found myself thinking, wow, 80k sgd! It all seems planned now – in the midst of our conversation she received 2 calls from “fellow lucky draw winners” (funny enough she didn’t put me on mute / on hold, I could hear her speaking to the other party. Intentional? Perhaps.) She also pointed out I sounded really young (I’m just past 18, she mentioned I can’t claim the award otherwise) and asked for my age, my interests… said I could pay for my school fees using the $$ and so on. Told me I didn’t have to decide now, I can contact her again when I discussed with my parents (bold move hahaha) whether or not to get the tour package or the cash award.
I was interested in the award, yet everything was so dubious and ungrounded! So I kept asking for clarifications about the company. She was patient.
What’s your company website? Company website under maintenance, only available in June
Where is your office in Singapore? It’s very troublesome to register a company in Singapore, we will only have it in August, when that time comes do come by for our opening ceremony and tell your friends about our electronics!
Why is it a private number? Something about telco I can’t remember
Possible to email me anything about your company? She skipped this question, asking me I don’t believe her right, she repeated everything I already know about her company and told me it’s very hard for her to convince me, I will know in a few days after I get the money.
I guess greed overcame me then, despite my doubts I gave her my IC number, name (both chinese and english) and bank account number on the spot, thinking there’s nothing she can do with these info anyway. She gave me her name, number and company info.
天堃 (tian kun electronics, based in hk)
zhou yu jie / +85281916399
After I hung up, my instincts kicked in again and I decided to check if her company existed.
Google: This is where I decided it was a scam – if your company is that established to give out Ferraris (that was the ‘first prize’) it definitely will be found on google! But no.
Called Ngeeann City management to verify if such an event happened: No, there were no ‘electronics fair’ as mentioned by her, she even said it was a charity fair where proceeds will go to the needy!
I decided to do a final check (was prepared to make a police report and all), so I called the number given. I thought it would be a fake number but it rang! The girl who picked up correctly stated the company name, and asked who I was looking for. Found the girl I spoke to previously, she appeared to be quite flustered. I said I have my doubts about this entire lucky draw thing and asked AGAIN if she could provide me or email me any info about her company and the event. She said she’s busy and will call me again.
I received a call from her an hour later. This time round I asked again – WHERE was the event held and WHEN? She told me 3月16日 远东广场 （乌节路) I was quite shocked as I clearly remembered I was told NGEE ANN CITY and not Far East Square (or Plaza?) so I confirmed with her and she said yes. Maybe she knew I would check with Ngeeann City for confirmation and came up with another venue. I didn’t want to expose her there and then and risk alerting them, so I hung up.
I decided to google again, this time I googled hk phone scams and this blog post came up. I am shocked as to how similar the methods are, and how experienced these people are.
It is clear they did their homework. They told me their company is like 丰城 (gain city, one of such electronics company in SG) And they kept harping on the event being held at Orchard Road, probably googled the names of Ngeeann City and Far East Square (which is actually NOT in orchard…… that’s Far East Plaza) so to identify them, look out for the blatant inconsistencies (I believe she told me 2 different dates too, but I am not completely certain)
Currently, I am waiting for the follow-up call to inform me I need to transfer some fee and so on, which I’ll reject giving of course. Sounds funny but I need that ‘closure’! Am very insecure now thinking they’ll use my IC and hack my SingPass to apply for visas (happened before in Singapore) or anything under my name! O: I am considering playing on a bit longer to obtain their bank acct numbers so I can pass it on to the authorities and alert everyone.
I just hope the entire episode will be over soon.
No greed, no scam. The next time I get such calls, I know what to do!
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Hi Yan, I am Jessie and I am currently experiencing a similar scam….. but when I told them that I do not want to collect and they should just donate the money… They say I might be charge with govt. tax. My mandarin was not good enough to fully understand or communicate with them. But when they say tax, I was worried… Can they charge to us cause they already have my IC number, bank account number like an after effect… you know what I mean? What did you do in the end? did you report to the police? how can I do that? Can you please share your experience? Thanks.
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Thanks to this site I have confirmed that it was just a scam.
Well it all started with a harmless phone call, asking me some survey questions regarding food (I suppose). I was quite occupied with my work so I answered the questions and forgot all about it after I hung up.
Two weeks ago this lady with Taiwanese accent called and said she is from Hong Kong, under a huge business group names Yu Pin Tang (御品堂) and told me I won the second price of their lucky draw. At first I was confused about it, until she ‘helped’ me to recall back the incident happened a month ago. Apparently I won a car, a Mercedes Benz X6 that costs HKD944000 with my lucky number A35413. I was skeptical at first. Then she gave me their company address : yupintang-hk.com and asked me to search for it online. I was in front of my computer so I straight away went onto the website. Surprisingly the website was nicely done.
After that similar stuffs happened, she asked if I can travel to Hongkong to collect my prize, I was like OF COURSE NO? Then she asked why, apparently I have to study and work. She then offered me another alternative: convert the prize into cash, which is about SGD153000 after some tax, and said she will transfer to me. She asked for my details and account number, saying that she needs to verify whether I am the prize owner, and I gave her my name, student card number (which is also same with my IC, just that I told her it’s a student card number) and account number (no harm right???).
The very next day she called and told me they confirmed me as the lucky person who won the prize. I was curious HOW WAS SHE ABLE TO VERIFY MY DETAILS WITH MY STUDENT CARD NUMBER? I asked her and she cleverly changed the subject. She then gave me a number 852 30717730 and a bank account number (sorry I lose it), saying that they opened a temporary account with my cash of SGD153000 in it, and asked me to call the bank with that number to check. The call was kinda professional, at first i get to hear the automated response, and get to choose the language and everything before I get to speak with the officer. A male officer answered the call and checked my ‘temporary account’ and confirmed the amount, then told me they still need a confirmation letter from the company to make sure that this is not some illegal transferring of money. I called the lady and she said she will get back to me soon. During the phone call I can hear her ‘colleagues’ discussing that another lucky winner has received the prize blah blah blah. She then interviewed me how would I spend the money and I replied I need to pay my brother’s school fees at poly.
She called again and told me it would be better for me to come over to Hongkong to do the trasfer, alternatively she can ask her GM to do this for me, however according to some HongKong legislation, if I need to transfer any amount of money more than USD5000 out of HK, I will need to pay a 2.5% tax of the money. I guess it was roughly SGD3500. I told her I don’t have that much of money. She said since I am such a good sister, she decides to help me. She will advance SGD1500 for me, so I will just need to pay SGD2000. The lady pressed on that I must pay her back the SGD1500 after I got the money in my account. I kinda suspected her at that point of time, but she sounded sooooo promising and kind. Yes, please beware, they really sound promising! She even advised me how to spend the money properly seriously =.=
I told her I don’t have SGD2000 too, she told me to borrow from my friends or family, just that don’t tell them about this, as this might cause me troubles. I told her my friends wants to see some proof, or else they are not going to borrow me any money. She avoided answering my question and asked me to try to get the money somehow. So I told her I will only be able to prepare the money in early May (this was just to buy me some time so that I can confirm whether this is a scam). She agreed and hung up.
I checked up on HK bank websites, the ‘legislation’ that needs us to pay tax etc etc and the list of registered companies in HK but I could not find the company name on it. Was considering whether I should seek for Consumers Association’s or police’s help and I stumbled across this site. God bless me.
Please tag this company’s name on your site if possible. So that next time someone ‘lucky’ will stumble across your site when they are trying to search for this company! Thank you!
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Hey guys, the woman has struck again. Almost got conned. Her MO is exactly the same and she’s really quite the professional. I’m from Singapore.
Her (fake) name: Mrs Chen Xiu Zhu
Company Internet address: http://www.xinskhk.com
Company name: Hong Xin Shun Electronics
Moderus Operandi: Called me one month before to ask me an electronics survey. Says there will be a fair held in Singapore the next day, asks me to attend and puts my handphone number in lucky draw. Calls me one month later to say I won lucky draw, 3rd place is a 15 day tour to America worth 600k HKD for four people, or I can exchange it for cash which is about 88% of original amount. Must say that she is very convincing and persuasive, after three weeks of calls back and forth she finally asked for 4.5% of total amount, that’s when I know it’s a scam alr. Now the telephone number listed on company website is defunct
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Hi there! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I have added the fake name and also company name to this post’s tags hopefully in doing so helps someone avoid getting scammed.
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Damn, I thought that they restricted themselves to the internet. I get these emails all the time. How annoying AND intrusive that they would phone you. Well done that you ignored them in the end.
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I am wonder where did they got our name, ic number and phone number… and all these info are correct
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I received a “Private” call from a girl from China, once on August, telling me that there is an event for home appliances going on in PWTC Kuala Lumpur, and ask me to attend if I am free, but I was not around in Malaysia that time, so I rejected the invitation. On September, i received this call again, telling me that I have won a car worth HKD59,000 from a system matching lucky draw from the event. I asked her deeply how did she able to get my contact, and she told me she got it from the local event company on that day of event so that she can call me to redeem this lucky draw car. She told me too that i had probably join a contest while buying home appliances, facial product and that is how they have my contact. She was really pushy for me to redeem this car and told me it is so hard for someone to be so lucky, bla bla bla. I went online and immediately check for this event, there is none of such car winning lucky draw even there is such an event but being so pushy, it is fishy. Nevertheless, I told her off I’m totally not interested at all and hung up. She kept calling me few times and ask me why I am not interested.
Just to keep this updated, it is still happening.
Rachel, Malaysia
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Since they are able to tell my chinese name out correctly with my phone number, and the only recent time i have passed my chinese name out is when i apply for a visa to visit China last year directly from the embassy, has anyone have the same submission too?
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Hi All
Yes we have another 2013 event – this time in Canberra I have won $80,000!!!! Again wanting $1500 upfront for a “Fund Certificate Form” and then another further $1500 upon receipt of cheque.
It is a really professional scam with many contacts and even the name Wei Yang as the HK accountant to obtain the document? Has anyone else had this Gbai Company rubbish?
Marg
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i got caught up in this phone scam recently. details the same as mentioned by others already. they are so professional, talk very well, very convincing, they are really well prepared with meticulous details on their company and the prize claiming process. it was a well thought out scam. it sounded so real. i knew this was most likely a scam. but greed still got the better of me. i played along. gave away my personal particulars. i wish it was true. then they at the final moment asked me to transfer SGD$4K so that they can process my winnings. she patiently explained it to me in meticulous details and very convincingly too (the HK laundering law, the authentication requirement and process, you get your money back…..) she told me that she understands my concerns, there are really plenty of scams around but they are really a genuine company, she even invites me to Hongkong to visit the company). but i was of course not going to transfer any money to them. i wanted to find out more about the scam. i actually had a silly thought: what if i am wrong, it is real. i searched for this scam online and came across this website page. thanks a lot, Jan Shim. this page’s useful information and the many comments here finally gave me a sense of closure.
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As usual the scammer will try to con you saying they can send the prize in cash via wire because most victim will find it too hassle to just fly to HK to claim the prizes. Most of the “victim” here stops to act further at the moment the scammers ask to send money to them. But there are also exception. Here is what happen to my uncle.
He was so happy when received call from the scammer and thought it was a real one. He flies in and out HK very frequent on job assignments, so he has complimentary flight tickets. And he has a relative lives in HK too. So he got all the details of where he has to go claim the prize, phone number etc from the scammer and opt to go HK to claim the prize himself.
He took leave and flies to HK to surprise his relative. He gave his relative the address and they go search for it. After searching for half a day there and then only realize the address was not existed. The phone number was not in service either. My uncle was so disappointed at that time knowing that few hundred K of prize was a scam. Time and money wasted for the treasure hunt.
These scammer really no mercy one. They simply don’t give a damn!
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Yes the scam is still on! I’ve just received the Day 2 call asked me to watch the TV program this Sunday for the lucky draw!!
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I received phone calls today too. They have been calling since last year. I guess today is the 4th time I receive their calls. The previous times I didnt really pay much attention to the scams calls.
First time was last year 13th November(mention by them on the 4th calls).
I remember they just call me saying that I’m invited to an event in Orchard as they have some lucky prize going on and they didn’t see me there at all. They also mention that I’ve won the 3rd prize of HKD $50,000 +++(which I dont remember the exact amount). I was busy that day so I just ignore the call. Plus i dont believe i’m such a lucky person to win these kind of prizes.
2nd time they called again which is around a week after the “event” saying that I didnt went down to collect my prize and therefore they helped me to keep the amount of money. As usual I just ignore the calls.
3rd time they called around Jan before CNY. I answered the call saying I’m busy and therefore they didnt say much.
4th time they called TODAY. Finally a day I’m at home when they called. They hide their caller ID when they call me. I didnt know of such scams before they called today as I didnt went online to check. A lady with good chinese acent which is obviously from China as I doubt much HK girls are able to speak in such accurate chinese. She introduced herself saying that she is Fang Zi Yi 方子Yi(I dont know which YI she is referring to) calling from Ding Sheng electronics 頂勝電子公司. At first she started saying about the event last year in november. They are from HK and they came Singapore for an event last year and is held in orchard. At first I’m really convinced by them as this is not the first time I receive their calls and I thought that it might be real case that I won this sum of money. I was like “wow! they actually keep this sum of money for me!” LOL.
She went on about how I manage to win this money as I answered some of their questions regarding their electronics and therefore I got the lucky draw number sk2639. She also said that among the prizes, I’m the only lucky ones that won the cash prize as the rest are just other electronics items. Next she eleborate on saying that if I dont believe her, I can search online to check and if she is a scam she wont be calling me and tell me about the event asking me to go down to the event. Just for me to believe that this is not a scam call, she convinced me for 10 mins.
Next, she said that if I need to collect this amount of money, I need to do some verification with her. But before she ask me for verification, she asked about what job I’m doing and if I got the money how am I going to spend it etc. She also start saying that if I got the money I shouldn’t share this news with friends as they might start asking you for treats etc. She also say that if I got the money, I should buy her a meal. She is real naggy…I almost wanna tell her that if you want to verify my details please do so as I don’t feel like chatting so much with you.
After wasting 25 minutes of bullshit, she finally want some verification. She said she has to fill up a form to confirm my identify. But all these through verbal verification. So I asked if she is able to send the form to me for me to fill it up myself instead of verbal verification, she stumbled. She said she has to ask her manager regarding this. (Just email me the form and she has to consult her manager regarding this? I bet her manager has nothing much to do too.) She also say that she is working half day today so she will reply my call on Monday. She gave me her number +852 81915271 and also tell me that she is working from 9am-5.30pm weekdays.
So after hanging up the call I started checking this number and I came across this post. Phew. Lucky I checked and I didnt got scam by them. So beware everyone! I shared my experience too so I do hope other people with the same situation as me dont get scam by them!
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I got this kind of same situation too and it happened on Wednesday. She said she knew I am 17 years old which is underage to collect this money so I need my mom’s companion. My mom doesnt believe any single word she said to us but my mom gave her my empty account number and my IC number to see whether is it a scam or not. She said she will call me next Monday, this time she wanted my mom to accompany me to the bank to check my bank account. What should I do? Should I go or just ignore her when she call me?
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Nothing good is going to come out of this. Ignore her and get on with your life.
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I just received this call today June 26 2014, she say I have won the prize and she asked me if i had watched the TV program…
I said i never and she when on saying the event was last year and they have been trying to contact me for months and bal bal bal bal…..
Now they are asking me for my account number so I told them I don`t trust them so they say why not make a new account just for this case so I say OK and told them, I tomorrow go down to the bank to make a new account and will call them when the account is been made…..
so she gave me this telephone number 00852 30697577 and after that I told her I will be calling so when you pick up the call I will pass the phone to my Bank Lawyer freaked out :D…..
I don`t think she will call again when she hear the word lawyer…..
because at first she said huh why need lawer??? then i said no la is my BANK LAWYER he will help me with this case so i don`t have to do all the paper work 😀
So she said ok…..
Guess what i am going to do later tomorrow? I am going to give her a FAKE account number and my FAKE IC and see if she will do the extra work check if its real 😀
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Can anyone help me to check whether this company is fake or not? http://kuntat.com/
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Beware of these scammers in gold and diamond markets. Nice Job
http://www.pbase.com/noelmegumichan/gold_diamond_scamlist
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so.. if give her the NRIC no. and bank Account… will anything bad happen?
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Unlikely anything bad will happen simply from having access to your IC and bank account numbers. Otherwise your hard earned savings would have been taken by crooked bank employees that have access to their customers’ IC number and account numbers.
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Dear Jan,
I also received the same call from a lady by the name of Xu Li Li. Since the first time they told me, I already knew it was not true. I already told them you will be asking for money to do the remittance. They indeed call me today to ask for money to be paid to the Bank as deposit and once i received the money, they will redeposit the money i have paid earlier on. They will be calling me later, are there any solution to stop these people scamming the innocent and old folks? Are there any ways that I can do to trap them and report to the relevant agency in Hong Kong?
Thanks and Regards
Raymond
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“They will be calling me later, are there any solution to stop these people scamming the innocent and old folks? Are there any ways that I can do to trap them and report to the relevant agency in Hong Kong?” This is a case of cyber crime and these criminals are very careful not to leave breadcrumbs that can be traced back to them. Making sure your family and friends are aware of this is perhaps the best defence against becoming a victim.
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This scam is still around in 2018 with a bit of change!
I’ve always dislike survey/marketing phone calls so I’m registered to DNC registry to not receive any of these. So an unknown caller rang me today which I didn’t think much and end up picking up.
The lady on the line had obvious accent that she was from China and started to introduce the company she represented – 华昌电子公司 (Wah Chong Electronics). They are doing market research and would like to know what type of mobile phone I’m using. I found her suspicious so I didn’t answer her and asked her instead where did she get my number since I am registered to DNC registry and am not supposed to receive such calls. She said she is unsure but the company took my number online and picked a few person to come down and attend their electronics fair at 远东广场.
She didn’t seem worried that she was not supposed to call my number. I was not interested at all and more annoyed than ever on how they got my number so I question her again what was the company’s name and where is it. She still could calmly tell me 华人’s 华 and two 日 makes a 昌. She told me again there would be a fair and would love to see me there at Level 1 of 远东广场.
She then proceed to ask for my surname which I gave a fake and random one then she ended the call with thanks and hope to see you.
Come to think of it, she’s not worried because they are not from Singapore and doesn’t know about this DNC registry or maybe they know but cannot be bothered. I actually thought it was from a legit electronic shop in Far East plaza.
After the call ended, I felt it was really dubious so I decided to google on it and found your article.
So bloody annoying these scammers! They try to change their story and tactics to continue to scam people. I hope everyone gets to read this updated tactic of theirs.
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It’s still happening.
I have just received a call from a lady with heavy Mainland Chinese accent.
She claimed that she had called me last year (I vaguely remember so), asking me to attend an event which took place in Berjaya Times Square, Kuala Lumpur.
One year later, she followed up with this call, asking if I have attended the event – to which I answered negatively.
She further told me that I am one of the 5 winners who won the lucky draw prizes; and I am in fact, the grand prize winner. I am entitled to have a Cartier diamond worth RM120,000.
So I am given two choices for collection:
1. to collect the diamond physically from Hong Kong ;
2. to get the diamond converted into cash, and have the prize money remittance be done in Malaysia.
I went for the first option, to which she asked me if I could collect it last week; otherwise, she recommended me to take the second option, since it would be more convenient for me.
Next, she asked for my bank account number.
I politely declined to accept the prize money since I did not feel comfortable giving my bank account details to someone through phone.
The phone conversation ended after she expressed how regretted she was that I declined my prize.
I’m here to find out the modus operandi of the incident, and I got it.
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Just received similar phone call scams. It is year 2020 Coronavirus. This idea is old but still useful to scam you out of hell !
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My brother just got scammed, same tactic, and he lost his life savings.
I hope these scammers die soon from COVID and there’s no amount of oxygen or help.
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