A KL woman fell victim to a scam after searching for a homecooked caterer to provide healthy daily meals for her mother who had just undergone surgery. Unfortunately, after downloading an app allegedly needed to facilitate the delivery service, she found that RM5000 had been cleared from her bank account and over RM3000 was charged to her credit card.
In a lengthy Facebook post, user Felicia shared her unfortunate and harrowing experience of being scammed out of her hard-earned money. She made the post to warn others against being duped in a similar situation in the future.
She found a Facebook page ‘靓靓住家私房菜 Liang Liang Homecook Catering’ which she says is still active. It supposedly provided daily homecooked meals and she had a WhatsApp conversation with the page with their number 01112203706. After the person sent the menu, she sent details for the customised menu options and made a payment of RM170 for 20 days. At this point, she didn’t find anything suspicious about the person as they provided her with bank account details, they said that their partner (0142168432) would contact her to arrange the delivery.
Red Flags
This is when the chain of events happened which Felicia said were red flags:
- The account sent her a link to download an app to order and track the delivery. She downloaded the app which was suspicious to her at first but the other man who took payment for her food order said it was okay.
- She could not find this app in the Apple or Google Play which had all the tell-tale signs of a malware/fake app. Still, she went on to download it. At that point, because she had already made a payment the night before for the food, it did not occur to her that this could be a scam.
- She registered and at first, it lagged and was slow, this was because she had already blocked notifications earlier on from this app. The scammer told her, this is normal, and once she enabled it, it would be ok. He even dropped her voice notes and called her. She continued on.
- As she made a payment of RM1 to book her delivery service, her credit card could not go through. The scammer asked her to try another credit/debit card which did.
- Both cards could not go through and the person dropped her a voice note to tell her that he would try on his end to see what was wrong.
- Ten minutes later, she started receiving OTPs on her phone. It was a chilling moment as she realised that her account was being cleared.
- Felicia quickly called the bank to block her cards and online app but they informed her that the transactions had unfortunately gone through.
Falling Victim
A total of RM5000 had been taken from her bank account and over RM3000 was charged to my credit card. She later made a police report, and a case has been opened under the classification of "phishing". She said that the officers and Investigative Officer whom she met were helpful, compassionate, and understanding but they all said that the transactions would not be traceable, and she wouldn’t get her money back.
Lessons Learned the Hard Way
There are so many scams nowadays that it is hard to escape them all as Felicia has learned. She shared what she learned from this experience as a lesson to others:
- Pay attention to the details. Trust your intuition if something is off
- Never ever download any link or app that you are unfamiliar with (She emphasised that she already knew this but went ahead and did it anyway)
- Always check, double check and triple-check if you are buying something from Facebook or Instagram. Basically, anything that is from a third-party account.
- Check-in with the people around you if you have doubts before you proceed (She explained that she actually has trusted friends around me, one of whom she could have checked to verify the site/link, but did not do it)
- Be present. Focus on what you are doing instead of rushing to get it done. She has learned this the hard way.
Honestly, it seems like even the most careful folks are getting scammed. Stay vigilant, guys!
Image credit: Felicia Ann, Adrian Swancar on Unsplash