Monday, October 11, 2010

Maid spray for $20thousand fortunate draw scam

Miss Sopiyanah, an Indonesian maid thought she had won$20,000. But she, ended up losing $74 in a mobile phone scam instead. It may be a small amount for most but it is about 20 per cent of her monthly salary. She could have lost another $400 if her employer Jenny Ong, 84, a retiree, did not step in to help her.

Miss Sopiyanah, said in Bahasa Indonesia: "I never thought it was a scam. I thought only of the money and how I could use it to build a new house for my parents in Indonesia."

Scam came in the form of an inoffensive message claiming to be from Petronas, stating that the beneficiary had won $20,000. Then recipients were told to transfer money to a bank account to process the transfer of the cash prize.

Miss Sopiyanah explained about scam that she received a text message on Sept 30 from an Indonesian mobile phone number that she had won $20,000 from PETRONAS. This is not the first time fraudsters have used the name of the Malaysian oil company to swindle people. In 2008, some Singaporeans received similar SMSes reporting that they had won $5,000 from PETRONAS in a lucky draw.

Miss Sopiyanah right away called the number using her Singapore pre paid SIM card and a man who identified himself as "Bapak Suleiman".

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