scam oh scam
fara | 2/1/2008 | 11:45 pmyou read about it in the news.
you hear it on the telly.
you go ‘tsk! tsk! tsk!’ at the gullibity of people who are duped by these scams. saying to yourself ‘how can they fall for it? if things are too good to be true, it normally is!!’ and thank the stars that nobody you personally know are victims.
then it hits somebody close to you.
that happened to me.. late last year – was happily playin with me kids after work one fine day when papa mentioned something that made me wanna hop up and down.
papa: fara.. kau tau tak mama kau dapat sms ari tu menang SIMcard competition. dapat 17 ribu in prizes. nak collect kena call balik number dlm sms tu
me: dia ade mintak deposit duit ke? tuuu scamm tu papa… buat tatau aje.. ignore.. tak pun gi report kat consumer association ke
papa: tapi kitorg dah respond dah kat diorg.. papa call kan untuk mama (my mom was attending a course @ a’famosa at that point of time)
me: nombor ape? papa takde kasik any account details kan..
papa: bagi… tapi lepas tu dorg mintak plak atm card nye number.. sbb dorg kata account # tak cukup.
me (i was already flabberghasted now): papa tak bagi kan? mama mesti bawak dia nya atm card?
papa: dah bagi dah.. mama sms kan kat papa.
at this point, i went into panic mode. asked papa to call mama and ask her to check her account balance. else, just withdraw/transfer any amounts that are existing.
mama forwarded the sms to my number and discovered that the number provided was an indonesian number. double whammy – not only scammed on the prize. papa actually called the number via his mobile – melambung lerr bill mobile
though in the end, alhamdulillah, mama’s account was safe. but to be doubly sure – she transfered her balance to her friend’s account.
i thot that was the end of it.
just now i received the same sms – asking to call the same darned indonesian number!! f*cker
now.. what shall i do with the number – prolly should prank ‘em back?
My mom the similar sms when she and my dad were in Mekah doing Umrah. Nasib baik she thot of checking the stuff with me first, konon menang Petronas comp RM100,000!! Sapa tak mau kan? I told her all about these scams going on, but part of me felt guilty for not warning her about these stuff earlier.
Do not call the indon number, my fren kena, somehow all her prepaid credit kena ambik. I dunno what would happen if you used a postpaid account but still to be on the safe side, just delete the sms. Or better yet, make police report, maybe they can trace back the number.
my dad called the indon number using his mobile – so far, alhamdulillah no skyhigh bills as yet.
on the police report end, am considering it.. now if only there’s an online complaint portal for these kind of things.