Thursday, October 02, 2008

Scammers Used Malaysian Bank Without Fear

The following article depicted a Malaysian's predicament involving scammers who partly operated within Malaysia. Malaysian banks have been used by pro scammers in accepting victims' money.
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I wish to share this experience with all Malaysians, so they know what the banks actually do. Also to share details of scammers and their bank details.

A friend of mine was scammed by someone she met online. This person had been communicating with her and later claimed to want to marry her. Obviously he was from the UK with a UK mobile number. During their last conversation, he told her that he would be coming down to Malaysia to meet her family in two weeks and in the mean time, he was sending her some gifts. He claimed that the parcel contained a laptop, a diamond ring, flowers, perfumes and 5000 pounds. He also gave her a fake website for the so called courier company that would be handling the delivery. The name of the so called company is ‘GLOBAL EXPRESS SERVICES’ supposedly based in Sabah. If you check out the website, it does not have any land line or fax line, all the numbers listed are local handphone numbers. I know, I know my friend was stupid to actually believe the guy was genuine. Many have tried this scam with me before but I knew it was a scam and never bothered.

Anyway to make the long story short, she was given a personal bank account number to bank in a total of approximately RM8,000 supposedly for custom clearance and insurance. Which she stupidly did. The account number provided was as follows :-

Name : HUZAIDAH BINTI HUSSIN
Bank : CIMB A/C 12510075365528

Unfortunately for my friend, I only knew of this after she made a police report when despite banking in the money, she did not receive the parcel. In fact she did not even realize that the person she had been communicating with is involved in the scam and the person supposedly from the courier company was actually an African/Nigerian which I told her after calling the mobile number and pretending to ask for someone else. From his accent, it was obvious but she never realized it.

Anyway I took her to the nearest CIMB branch to make a report and to try to get the money back. I requested the officer to hold back the funds and do not allow any withdrawals as the account holder is a scammer and we were also informed that the RM8,000 plus is still in the account. She tells me that since the account does not belong to her branch, she is not able to do that. She informed us that the branch is their Kepong branch and so I asked her to call up the branch and ask them to immediately stop withdrawals and we will go to that branch and provide all the evidence and make our claim. That done we went to the kepong branch and provided all the evidence to the officer and requested that the money be refunded as there is clear cut evidence that it’s a scam. Even the police report was given with the deposit slips.

This happened on the 3/9/2008. The officer tells us that he will get his managers approval and call us if approved. After several days, I call the said officer only to be told that the legal department is handling it and they are investigating the case. I informed him that why should the case take that long to investigate as all evidence confirming the account holder is a scammer has been provided including write ups from other people who have been scammed by the same group. He tells me I am not able to speak to the legal officer handling it and can only liaise with the branch concerned.

Anyway again to make matters short, after making lots of noise and telling of the operator, I finally get to speak to a legal officer who tells me to call a Miss Rajesh based at the kepong branch as she is handling the case. I called her and she tells me nothing just that she does not know when it would be resolved and when I asked her to at least give me a date, she says she does not know and is very rude. I tried to explain to her to speed up the refund as my friend had borrowed the money from a money lender and thus paying a high interest as she thought that she would pay back once she received the parcel which also contained money. This Miss Rajesh tells me rudely ‘the bank is not bothered about that’. This of course pissed me off and I gave her a good piece of my mind, telling her yes I know the bank could not be bothered, only when people are doing well, they will run after them like a dog begging them to take loans etc. I had also spoken to the National Cosumer Complaints Center and provided all the details to them. Thus I told this Miss Rajesh as she was very rude and not helpful at all that from now the NCCC will communicate with her.

I even called BNM and have written to them about this. BNM says they have given CIMB 2 week to respond. BNM also tells me they have no procedures to deal with scammers, and that it falls under the police jurisdiction to take action. Despite the fact that so many people are being scammed, should not BNM be proactive and come up with proper procedures requiring all banks to report any scam accounts and all banks to be forwarded the report so they should blacklist this scammers and not allow them to open the account. BNM tells me that scamming comes under fraud and thus the police would have to get a court order to freeze the account, which could take weeks of not months considering how slow our judiciary works.

Despite making a police report and the police having all the scammers details including phone number, addresses, bank accounts etc, they have not bothered to apprehend and arrest these scoundrels. Instead they waste their time going after innocent citizens like Raja Petra.

As for CIMB, Miss Rajesh calls my friend and asks her who I am and why am I calling on her behalf. The reason for this is actually because my friend is young and naïve and does not know how to handle these things, so I was helping her out with her authority. Miss Rajesh then tells my friend that they are trying to negotiate with the scammer to allow them to refund the money to my friend. When I my friend told me this, I was shocked. CIMB is negotiating with the scammer instead of getting them arrested. She also tells my friend to call the scammer and negotiate with her.

Can you guys beat that. Is it the banks duty to negotiate with those who scam and commit fraud or are they suppose to get such people arrested.

Till todate, the police has done nothing, probably put the file away and neither has the bank done anything and have just asked my friend to negotiate with the scammer.

This friend of mine has another friends who mixes with some African/Nigerians and she was informed by him that the banks and the police are working hand in hand with the scammers as they are paid a commission, hence they money will never be refunded as neither will the police do anything nor will the bank.

Its almost a month now and there is no news from either. Why should the refund take so long, if the bank wants to negotiate with scammers, then they should request the scammer to provide evidence that the parcel containing all the stuff was delivered. If they cant provide such evidence there is no reason for the bank to hold the money.

It is obvious that the bank and police seem to be working hand in hand with scammers.

I'm writing this to create awareness among all Malaysians as to what is really happening and how bank staff are cheating customers and working hand in hand with scammers just for a mere commission.

For everyone’s information, all the other details of the scammers involved are as follows as they have many bank accounts and a whole group of them involved:-
1. Huzaidah binti Hussin
Public Bank a/c 4886411429
RHB a/c 1-12189-0016454-3
CIMB a/c 12510075365528

2. Julianah Binti Jaleel
Alliance Bank a/c 640960020020577

Contact Person involved in the scam claiming to be from Global Express Services:-
James Ruben 013-3260247
Michael Coleman 013-3260245
Benson White 013-2693782
Aini 013-8697255

I hope this letter will highlight to the authorities how important it is to ensure there are proper rules and regulations set out by the relevant bodies on how to deal with scammers immediately and not just keep pushing the buck. This is something important which affects all of us who are cheated of our hard earned money. These scammers have got no compassion for people who suffer to makes ends meet and they try to lure them with such deals. I know its stupid for anyone to believe such scams. But then again, there are many young people around who may not realize whats going on and take people at face value not realizing they are being cheated.

As a community, it is all our duty to ensure that all citizens are safeguarded from such unscrupulous people and action should be taken against such irresponsible bank staff who work with scammers and also the police who do absolutely nothing to get rid of these scum.

Anti Scam
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After reading the above article, I googled Global Express Service Ltd and found another two articles written by victims:-

* Global Express Services Ltd. Don't be fooled or else you'll regret later Kota Kinabalu Malaysia Internet - Scam Fraud Alert

* Report: Courier Services A Scam (Global Express Services Ltd) - Rip-Off Report

This phony Global Express Services Ltd seems to be operating from two addresses:-
* Avon Valley Business Park, Nationwide, United Kingdom

* Block E, Ground Floor, Damai Point Commercial Centre, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

What are CIMB Bank Berhad and Alliance Bank Malaysian Berhad doing about this? Are the banks really negotiating with the scammers?

Reading: CIMB in Cahoots With Scammers - Malaysia Today
Reading: Syndicate behind courier scams, warns Customs - Daily Express
Tags: CIMB Bank Berhad, Alliance Bank Malaysian Berhad, Scammer, Global Express Service Ltd, Huzaidah binti Hussin, Julianah Binti Jaleel, James Ruben, Michael Coleman, Benson White, Aini, Avon Valley Business Park, Damai Point Commercial Centre, Courier Scams

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

My Noisy Neighbour at Work

My latest neighbour at work is quite noisy lately. Could hear those squeky sound in each move.

He's the crane operator just outside of my window. If you think your work is stressful, boring, lonely and too routine, do remember him.









This is a posh serviced residences, called My Habitat2, that is being constructed.

I could hear those construction noise daily while doing my office work as the building under construction is just next to my office building.

Tags: My Habitat2, Crane Operator

PCC 20th Anniversary Dinner

At last after all the preparations for the last two to three months, efforts were not in vain. The committee headed by Christy Yeong managed to gather 430 people for this grand dinner held at Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort.
The youth team performed their fast dance that has a short hip hop step in between.
Our African contingent performed their songs too. Later this same group back up for our Senior Pastor's song.
One of our committee members managed to bring in this (what you call those white blown up plastic stuff) that made so much of noise that you can't hear anything else. Imagine the noise made by 430 people in a ballroom ........ deafening indeed and people of all ages actually enjoyed banging that two blown up plastic stuff.



It ended just 10.30pm and it was a memorable event while I lost out in an auction for a t-shirt signed by all our Malaysian badminton players during the Beijing Olympics. It would have been a good collection.

Related post - PCC 20th Anniversary
Tags: Praise City Church, 20th Anniversary, Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Selected as AMBP Travel Ambassador

Was invited by Star newspaper to attend an event for the launching ceremony of a travel tool (domestic travel) administered by Mayflower ACME Tours Sdn Bhd ("Mayflower"). This travel tool, found in AllMalaysia.info and Mayflower's websites, shall make your holiday planning much easier. The travel tool will assist in booking flight tickets, accommodations, cars and tour packages.

In this travel tool, it will publish write-ups by bloggers on various local holiday destinations so that travellers will know what to expect. What bloggers? These bloggers are known as Travel Ambassadors.

I was selected by Star's All Malaysian Bloggers Project ("AMBP") after applying to become one of their Travel Ambassadors. AMBP has selected forty bloggers out of two hundred plus applicants. Thanks to Star for selecting me. Now I get to blog for a publication as well. Who told me that blogging was a waste of time? It's payback time now.

For a start, we were given Mayflower's Privilege Card, two vouchers for 2 days/1 night hotel stay at Terengganu and Sabah beaches respectively and limo transfers to/fro KLIA.

Michael Aeria, COO Multimedia, Star Publication gave an opening speech, followed by Mayflower's GM, Chin Ten Hoy.

Michael said one sentence which I will remember - we (Star) view bloggers as our partners, not as rivals! Solid statement coming from a mainstream media.
Datuk Rashid Khan, the commercial director of Malaysia Airlines was there too to grace the event. Michael, Chin and Rashid were actually putting their hands onto a button visualised on the white screen to imitate pressing a button to start a video clip.

Got to know some bloggers in the process. From left - Quachee, Thomas Yap, Soon Seng, Hurley, Teckiee and Samantha Poh.
We were treated to a buffet dinner and the same group of us sat at the cafe chit chatting till 9pm. What a start! We even got the AMBP Editor, Michael Fredericks, to sit with us talking about the Travel Ambassador programme. Got to know Tammy who was seated beside the editor.





We are excited about the programme. We will be getting all fully-paid holidays to local destinations at the expense of Star/Mayflower where in turn, we shall do a write-up on our travel experience.

It won't be restricted to travels alone but we will be invited to festival events, cultural events and food promotions too. All this in return for write-ups. What's so hard about it? It's all fun.

Reading: Holiday planning made easy - Star
Tags: AMBP, All Malaysia Bloggers Project, Travel Ambassador, Event, Star, Mayflower, Mayflower ACME Tours Sdn Bhd, Travel

Monday, September 29, 2008

Weird Animal in Local Fishing Village

Local travellers were shocked when they were walking around a fishing village in coastal area of Selangor. They thought aliens have landed when they saw three giant figures right in from of them. After cooling themselves, they noticed that the 'aliens' were none other than big octopuses being hanged out to dry.
Tags: Alien, Weird Animal, Octopus

Malaysian Taxis - Worst in the World?

International news are highlighting that Malaysian taxis are the worst in the world. It's definitely not a propaganda by any parties but it's a fact. Though not all taxi drivers are terrible but majority of them are good enough to tarnish Malaysia's image.

Even though Malaysia has imposed that all taxis be fixed with a meter to determine a journey's fee, majority of the taxis won't be using it but will quote a fixed fare instead.

I seldom board a taxi as I own a car but I do here horrible experiences from many friends. The taxi drivers could smell whether you are desperate to reach another destination. Once he knew, he would quote you a fixed fee which would be way above the usual fare. Since you need to be there on time, you have got no choice but to pay that exhorbitant fare.

What is the authority doing about this? Nothing!
They will tell you that they are short of staff, not enough evidence or there are not many of such taxi drivers as claimed.

I'm not blogging about this to backstab my country but this is a fact. Moreover, this could be an information that out of town travellers could rely on and know what to expect instead of receiving a shock of their lifes.

There are dozens of taxi drivers who would park alongside the roads near the Puduraya and KL Sentral bus stations awaiting the arrivals of bus passengers from various places in Malaysia.

Most bus passengers would be burdened with numerous baggages or kids and wouldn't mind paying or forced to pay additional fares just to get home immediately without getting into any hassle to bargain with the unscrupulous taxi drivers.

There are taxi drivers waiting outside hotels and once there are hotel guests who have indicated for a taxi at the hotel concierge, such taxis would be called. The fare for such taxis would definitely be higher than usual as the reason given would "We have sacrificially without getting any other passengers". The hotels are collaborating with such scam or are the hotels providing fast service in this case?


The Suria KLCC management, has put up a signboard warning travellers about taxi touts who don't use the taxi meters but will charge unauthorised flat fare. That's the truth about Kuala Lumpur taxis.

If I do need to board a taxi during office hours, I will take my time in getting a taxi that will use the meter to determine the taxi fare. How am I going to explain during my claim for travelling expenses if I was charged exhorbitantly?

The moment a taxi fella opens his mouth by mentioning a figure after hearing my destination. I will just shut the door and move behind the taxi to look for another one.

Read and heard a lot of bad stuff about other taxis around Malaysian's cities and towns. Any experience to share?

Reading: Malaysia's 'worst in the world' taxis tarnish national image - France 24 (source of pics)

Related post - Taxi Scam at Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Tags: Malaysia, Taxi, Cab, Metered Taxi, Taxi Touts

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Proton's Latest Model?

Malaysia's Proton Holdings Berhad ("Proton"), the manufacturer of Proton brand cars, is moving into the higher range of motor vehicles sector, the Multi Purpose Vehicle or MPV and could be challenging the likes of Porsche Cayenne S, BMW X6 or Nissan Murano as shown in the picture below.This new Proton model has not been named yet but the prototype MPV model was given the name of Proton MSX. You can't see it in the showrooms yet but lots of people have been invited to see the prototype model.
Proton can't even match the likes of Toyota Wish, Honda CRV or Nissan Grand Livina but now have thought of matching those of the top range. What kind of strategy is this? How much will this car be priced at? If I have RM500,000, I'll rather buy those the imported cars rather than a local model of the same specifications.



Another two blogs by the name of Automotive News and Kereta Dot Info have pictures of Proton's alternative prototype MPV models. Which model will be finally chosen as the Proton MPV that is targetted to be launched in year 2009?

By the way, Proton has not decided on the name for the new MPV model. Proton has set up a competition in naming the MPV model. The grand prize is the said MPV model and followed by two consolation prizes of overseas trips worth RM15,000. Give it a shot.
Tags: Car, Proton, Proton Holdings Berhad, Proton MSX, Proton MPV, Porsche Cayenne S, BMW X6, Nissan Murano, Multi Purpose Vehicle, MPV, Toyota Wish, Honda CRV, Nissan Grand Livina

Pattaya International Fireworks Festival

Pattaya is definitely firing up its presence internationally. Covid19 has hit many nations really hard and Pattaya wasn't exempted from ...