A woman found herself RM234,000 in the hole after she fell victim to a scam disguised as a part-time job that promised high commissions.
She later held a press conference detailing her experience and warned others not to fall for the same bait.
Came across part-time job offer
According to the victim named Meili (pseudonym), she said she was scouring online for a part-time job online when she came across one that claimed to pay commissions for reviewing hotel rooms in January.
She was then contacted by a woman and given her first task, which she completed on Jan 21 and earned about RM200, which she successfully withdrew and gave her confidence to continue.
The next day, Meili received another task which promised commissions worth several thousands of US dollars. However, she was told she needed to top up funds into a registered account first and was assured that her deposit and commissions can be withdrawn upon completion.
Completely believing that promise, Meili transferred the money and spent two days completing the second task.
She added that between Jan 21 and 25, she reviewed a total of 86 hotel rooms.
Loses money to scam
Meili said she was later informed that in order to withdraw her funds, she had to pay additional fees such as a security verification fee, tax, and a 15% processing fee.
Even after she paid for those fees, the scammer demanded another processing fee, which Meili refused to pay.
It wasn’t until April when Meili’s cousin told her that she most likely fell for a scam, causing her to attempt withdrawing her promised returns from the account but to no avail.
When asked how much money she had in the account, Meili said it was around USD70,000 (approx. RM296,000).
‘An expensive lesson’
Meili added she initially hoped to get her money back, but eventually realised her chances were slim and decided to take it as “an expensive lesson.”
She has since lodged a police and a complaint with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on Aug 19, but was told the matter had to be referred to the police for investigation.
However, she reiterated that the RM234,000 was solely from her own savings and didn’t involve borrowing money from friends.
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