CekikDarah.com [empowering youth with pitis literacy]

Scams Alert

Written by Ken

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

CekikDarah.com - empowering youths with pitis literacy

Have you met Uncle Scam?

I have. On several occassions.

It's very tempting when you are approached with an offer too good to be true; you suddenly won a large sum of cash, a home theater system, electronic gadgets and so forth.

Don't believe us?

Ask Kenny Sia.

His post on Being Cheated By The Hong Kong Lucky Draw Scam is legendary.

The following are two examples of the scams going around today.

1) The SMS Contest Winner Scam

What can be better than to know that you've won money from CELCOM???

SMS continued......

The above SMS was very tempting. Nonetheless I had several issues with the authenticity.

i) Too many typos.

Hadiah Cek Tunai - So which one is it? Have I won a cheque? Or will I be able to collect the cash?

RM 20.000 - Wait, wouldn't that mean it's RM 20 (twenty) instead of RM 20k (twenty thousand).

Malaysia follows British monetary system, which is why our currency is in singular Ringgit (RM 1) as opposed to Indonesia that follows Dutch monetary system; in thousands. (Rp 1000, Rp 500).

Terimakasih - As opposed to 'Terima Kasih' (notice the space)?

CELCOM is a big company, a major player in the telecommunications sector. Given their high profile, would they jeopardize their reputation with major typos? Isn't it customary for any promotional items by any big companies to go through strict approval process?

ii) Foreign numbers (006281524967997 & +6281944608157)

The international calling code for Malaysia is 60. 62 is Indonesia's. The numbers are valid!

If you ring them up, you will be greeted by somebody, claiming to be a CELCOM employee, authenticating the amount of money that you have won.

I know. A friend of mine came up to me to seek consultation after calling the number.

After they have convinced the 'winner', the 'winner' is then required to deposit a sum of money for insurance deposit. Say that you've won 20k, they would ask you to deposit RM 1000 in your account/ or another account.

What's next?

They would then request for your internet banking ID and password (claiming that they want to make sure that they've got the right account to transfer your winnings). It won't be too long before the victim realize that all the money in that account is gone.

2) Email Scams