Thinking that a law firm was going to help her recover the money she lost to scammers, a local woman placed her entire trust in the company and hoped to recoup her losses.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a ruse and this led her to losing even more money than she did previously.
Tricked by ‘law firm’s 90-95% success rate
As reported by NST and The Star, the woman had come across online advertisements about legal firms offering assistance to recover funds lost to scammers with a purported success rate of 90 to 95%.
As such, she engaged the services of one such ‘law firm’ to recover RM1,500 but ended up being cheated of RM1.2 million.
In a separate case, a man also fell for the same trick, who was scammed of RM390,000 and later found himself losing another RM33,000.
‘Scammers scamming scam victims’
In a press conference held on Monday (Dec 15), MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said the department has received two complaints about the scam tactic so far.
He added he was “worried” about the high success rates advertised by fake legal firms as it led to victims suffering greater losses.
“I have been dealing with many online scam cases and my result so far is zero recovery. None of the victims who came to see me managed to get back their money.
“All their savings are gone, everything is gone. They have been destroyed, and some victims start borrowing from Ah Long to try to recover their money, which only pushes them into deeper trouble.
“This is basically scammers scamming scam victims,” he remarked.
Victims mainly from Chinese community
Also present was veteran lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who noted that based on his experience, a large number of victims were mostly of Chinese descent.
Chinese clients often ask, ‘What is the percentage of success?’ Anything above 80%, and they are happy to engage you.
“This is a typical way of hooking the Chinese community. Claims like 95% recovery are no joke; they are meant to excite you.
“In advertising, this is known as the ‘hooking method’, like fishing. They hook you with an attractive story, and once you are deeply involved, they go after you and wipe you out completely,” he explained as quoted by NST.
Shafee also raised questions about the law firms’ claims about being “cross-border” legal operators and believed their operations were based in Malaysia.
“They have come in as ‘Cross Border Law’, which sounds very impressive and suggests they are global and international. They give you that impression, though I am not suggesting this is true.
“Look at their advertisements, they use the word ‘ringgit’. Why would you use ‘ringgit’ if you are a cross-border law firm? The ringgit is not a widely traded currency,” he added.
Shafee said based on this, it’s likely that the scammers are specifically targeting gullible Malaysians.
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