I almost got cheated by a scam, below is the story… please help spread the warning.
I got a recorded message from ‘high court’ that I had missed a court hearing, and that I was summoned to another court hearing a couple days later… I was given the option to contact them for details by pressing a number (xxx press 1, xxx press 2 kind of style) and was investigated by a Bukit Aman officer… that I was suspected involving in a money laundry case, that a bank statement with my details were collected as evidence from a crime scene.
The officer mentioned that my details might be stolen from somewhere and used for crime, and he would need my cooperation to clear my name.
I was then contacted by some representative from high court. The lady showed some patience in asking some matters, sort of like clearing me from the case… the ‘investigation’ sounds convincing as she even told you that the conversation was recorded. (She spoke with me in Chinese, I should have suspected something fishy earlier)
Then came the funny part… she told me that the high court would have to freeze all my accounts for investigations, and that a new bank account would be opened by the high court, and I had to transfer all my money into that new account all risked my account being suspended until further notice.
I was not sure what to do, it didn’t sound right… I asked my sister for some discussions and felt that it might be a fraud case. I then contacted Bukit Aman (phone #) and Malaysia High Court (03-8880 3500 / 3900), and was told that there are no such investigation going on, and was advised to report to nearby police station.
I am just back from making the police report and decided to post a warning here. I was stupid enough to share my IC #, but luckily didn’t share anything about my bank account and didn’t lose any money here.
So, please help spread the news as warning to the others… and if you know any reporters, tell them to issue a warning of some sort if possible. Thanks.
May 15th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Wow, lucky you. That sounded fishy, for sure, but then, when you have someone on the phone telling you all this, all you want is get out of it, right? Lucky you had a clear head and consulted your sister.
And thanks for sharing
May 15th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
You are right Andreas… I was shocked and confused to hear that I was involved in a crime, I just wanted to get out of it. If I had a clear head I could have spot the scam earlier in the conversation… I was just lucky.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
[...] scam, scam. Will it ever end? I went over to Jee’s blog and read his latest post Scam warning. He said he “almost got cheated by a scam” and asked to “help spread the [...]
May 16th, 2007 at 10:56 am
phew!!! that was really close. thank god!!! thanks for the warning .. i think i will cut and paste this and send it over to all my family and frenz ..
May 18th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
this people just doesn’t give up scamming on people!
May 18th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Well… as long as there are people that got cheated, they won’t stop cheating.
May 20th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
[...] find out the similar news happen to others, you can read from Jee’s blog, USJ Forum and Tenth Of The Month. If you receiving some voice mail call and saying you miss the [...]
May 20th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Good to see your post about this scam notice on your blog. I got the same call and it didn’t sound right in the first place. No court will call you on the phone regarding any legal matters. It has to be written on paper and posted to you if there’s any notice to be passed on to anyone.
May 20th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I thought of the summone thing as well… but perhaps was a bit shocked at the first place and didn’t think properly.
May 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
When I got home from work today I had the same message left on my voice mail. At first I thought maybe it was an outstanding speeding ticket!! Then I realised the ‘Malaysian High Court’ would not deal with such small matters. I was going to call the High Court tommorow but this obviously not necessary. Thanks for the info.
May 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
You are welcome Keith.
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Phew! finally i get rest easy. The same happened to me on my fax machine! A pre-recorded female Japanese voice informed me that I missed my court appointment on May 14th and must now re-appear on May 28th at 2:30pm at the Malaysian High Court in Jalan Duta. Checked with a lawyer friend and he said all legal matters are ALWAYS written and posted to the recipient unless it was for jury duty (he only assumed this as it was previously practiced by the courts). Anyway i pressed 9 for more details and what a bloody joke it was! Another Japanese person (this time it was a bloke) started asking me for my details. I quickly asked for their contact number and was given the legitimate High Court no 0362094000!?? How come? According to the Malaysian Bar website, the number is valid but still not linked with the relevant courts etc.???Are these people are so down low when it comes to scamming or is it the real thing… I’m beginning to wonder. However, the ppl manning the telecentre were definitely NOT Malaysian!
May 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Suresh… I guess the syndicate is continously revolving to become more convincing. I doubt those are Japanese… most likely Chinese.
May 28th, 2007 at 9:50 am
I want to thank you a million times. I got the same call this morning and nearly went crazy trying to figure out what I had done. I also wondered why the message was in really bad English. i hunted high and low looking for mail that I might have ignored. I googled for malaysian high court telephone number and your site was number 1. And then this scam blog caught my eyes. You cannot possibly imagine the relief I felt. Has this been reported in the papers as yet? And do you suggest I make a police report? These people suck and I am glad that people like you expose them and make my sick -monday- morning -start a whole lot better.
May 28th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Sarah… you are welcome.
I remember seeing the news on Astro, not sure if it’s reported in the papers.
I assumed you didn’t share any personal details with the scammers yet; so unless you have more specific details other than what I wrote above, I don’t think you need to lodge a police report.
Cheers.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:04 am
This 03-62094000 is actually number used for a scam? I had 2 missed calls from this number yesterday and i checked the number and got here instead. Was lucky I didnt answer them.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:11 am
suzie… I can’t answer on Suresh’s behalf.
Just be careful… in case you are really curious about the number, use a public phone to call them and see what it’s about.
June 8th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
[...] Blogger Jee has first hand experience of this scam a few weeks ago. According to the report, the victim received a phone call from the “Malaysian High Court” and was said to have missed a court hearing. In order to “settle the problem”, the victim is required to hand over his name, identity card number, bank account number and current bank balance. [...]
June 14th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Wow! Your article really calmed me down yesterday. The same thing happened to me in the morning at 12pm. Step -by step …. exactly the same thing.
I am an indian and we are expats here, my husband works with Astro. So when i told these guys that i don’t have a bank account here , they asked me atleast 10 times , Are You sure , You don’t have an account. And i said -No, i don’t have.Then they said that there was a raid and some documents were found in your name and all bank papers are in your name. And asked me to confirm my IC. And i said i don’t have an IC, coz i don’t work here, they asked me for the passport number. It just went on for 15-20 minutes.
When i told this to my husband , he said it seems like a hoax, not to worry.We asked the office people and have informed everyone in the office about such calls.And the HR has done a very good job by passing a circular to everyone in the office, informing all abt this.
When i saw ur article, i felt so good and so much better, that it’s nothing serious, just a scam , a hoax.
Thank you so much.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
You are welcome Manisha.
June 14th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Just had one such call. I got suspicious. Said I was busy and asked for a call back number. He stated it as 03-62094000. I searched that number and ended up in here. This syndicate must be trying all possible numbers in the city.
June 14th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Thim… the syndicate must have used some sort of software (or hardware) to do random dialing. If it’s not stopped, everyone in Malaysia will receive their call sooner or later.
June 15th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I just received the same call; and got this 03-62094000 for a call back no. I suspected something fishy and did some googling and ended up here. Thanks for the warning. I’m going to informed more ppl about this scam.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I received a phone call on that yesterday.
I gave them my full name and IC no., I found they are fishy because they don’t speak like Malaysian.
Further more, I can’t even read what they are trying to tell me.
My instinct told me this is a SCAM, I warn them not to call me anymore and I will make a police report on that.
The question is I have gave them my name and IC, can they do anything from me?
June 21st, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I got a call today to my house phone. Caller ID was 0301 which is overseas(?). Same story as above and asked for my IC. Told them I am a Mat Salleh & don’t have IC so she asked for my passport no.
She wasn’t Malaysian so I told her she didn’t sound Malaysian & told her I don’t give these details out before verifying properly who was on the other end. She said she was Chinese from Ipoh! I’ve been here long enough to recognise a Malaysian accent so asked to get put onto her supervisor. Another strange accent - sounded Thai to me. Told her this & she said OK, and hung up immediately.
So, beware. Actually best idea is to give them completely made up IC & bank acount details. With a bit of luck they will get flagged trying to access multiple non-existent accounts.
June 26th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Jessica… don’t worry too much about the IC details. They can do something with it if they want to… but your IC details are not something that is very private; people can find it from various resources, so don’t worry too much about it.
Dave… actually with all the reports that are lodged to the police, it’s hard to believe that the police still have not enough info to catch or charge somebody… they are not doing their job obviously.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:09 am
GOD…i got the call this morning too!
Should have sensed something fishy when the lady speaks in strong china accent..
I gave her my name and my IC!!Freaking dumb I am..
Luckily i got to your blog when i googled for telephone scam..
I went through exactly the same thing. I shall spread the words now..
Thanx..this post of yours especially your last comment gave me some peace.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
You are welcome Kua… glad that you spot something fishy before it’s too late. Do spread the news to your friends and family.
June 30th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
[...] Malaysia + Bukit Aman”. Ha, those findings surprised me. A blog reported that it was a scam (http://jeelife.com/2007/05/15/scam-warning/). Coincidently, phone rang at this time and I picked it up. Who else can it be? The inspector [...]
July 27th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Hihi.. I just received that call just now. Would like to share, here goes:
That same calling experience, after giving my IC #, and she asked for my names spelling, after spelling half way, my “instinct” awaken, so I decided to give her incomplete spelling of my name. Same experience, that “male-police from Bukit Aman” call and say something to freeze all my accounts… Then I asked him again my hearing date, he gave me and then hanged off… That’s my experience. : )
Would like to know, what do info of my name, Ic #, and name of bank can do wonder in cheating out my $$$? These are the info I gave. They didn’t asked for account number leh… Should I make police report?
Why I sense something wrong?
The call is in Chinese. And the person’s voice in pure China Chinese.
I was thinking, if someone called from Malaysia Government, shouldn’t it be pure Malaysia Malay?
That’s all. Hope everyone is alright?
July 27th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Limelite… name, IC and name of bank could do nothing much; and as I mentioned earlier, those info can be easily obtained everywhere… so don’t worry about it.
I do hope everyone is alright… but I doubt it is the case. There must be some people that are cheated but perhaps they rather keep quiet or that the press find it not report-worthy.
August 8th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Thankz for replying… I’ve noticed you’d reply to most of the comments and your blog turned out to be a place to share this scam. Another thankz~
I figured out that this is just another idea of scamming, as long as we the citizen be much more careful, it is no big deal. The only point for it to be report-worthy is the use of “Malaysian High Court”, because they are using the name of Malaysia Government to do the cheating. This can be serious as those who get cheated is because they put their trust on Malaysia Government. If government chooses to ignore this, then the faith of citizen toward the government will drop…
August 8th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Limelite… you are welcome.
As careful as we are, they are people that are going to get hooked regardless. I can understand how easy to get panic with this scam, as I’ve had moment of panic too.
Both the police and the press have got enough information from us (the citizens)… sadly nothing is done to coup with this yet. Honestly I think the cops are part of the scam; it’s ridiculous that they are still not able to arrest anyone or burst any similar scamming syndicates all this while.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:36 am
I thank you for sharing such news. I just received the same call and already being suspicious about this. Thanks again!
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
This is the latest update..
Received a call with my phone’s CLID showing 0301 today. The first thing I heard was some recorded message as follows:
“Ini Mahkamah Kuala Lumpur.Anda dihendaki untuk menghadiri ke mahkahmah Rabu depan kerana disyaki terlibat dalam satu kes ceti rompak.Untuk maklumat lanjut sila tekan 9…”pre recorded by some chinese boy in Malay language.I remembered hearing his voice before in some telco customer care helpline.
The prerecorded message goes on for 4-5 times before the call is ended if there’s no response.If you press 9, you’ll be directed to some stupid operator. Asked him immediately in English wtf was I involved in some ceti robbery case that idiot straight away proceeded to ask me for my full name.Damn! the fixed line in my house isn’t even owned by me.So I just simply gave him a false surname, he demanded more but from his chinaman accent I immediately realised that it was a dirty scam.Funny chinaman spoke to me in Malay all the time when I kept answering and questioning him in English.I got ngry and slammed the phone down.That was the last time I heard from him and no more scam calls for that day…Another fool that has just bitten the dust.
Now to take a step further in helping prevent such cases from repeating I urge readers here to try to recall whether you’ve most recently gave your phone number to anyone during the last few days before such calls came in. For me I remembered calling up a direct sales agency called Maltrade(found on the internet) earlier to enquire about their products only to have weird calls appearing the day after. I gave them my phone number because they requested to return a call back to me with more information about the product that I was interested in. To all..you need to be very carefull with the telephone contact numbers that are posted on the internet especially those Alibaba trading site contact numbers…those china trade ads are lurking with scammers just for fyi.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
what does IC, name and bank account number do then? I gave them these infos…will they be able to use these info to fraud identity or get money out of my acc?
October 18th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
tommy… I am not sure what they can do with the bank account number. The cops told me that they can do something with it, but I am not too sure about that.
I suggest you to check this with the bank officers, and close the acc if necessary.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
+6020808100. That was the number from my HP’s caller ID. I got about the same message as comment 35, in malay then in mandarin. Don’t know what the hack they are talking about, so I press 9, as instructed. Spoke to this guy, sounded like a malay… He told me about the story of them catching someone by the name of Wong Kok Meng from Kepong and they found copy of my IC & bank ac, thus i need to attend a court case at Magistrate 3 on Wednesday also. Btw, never know anybody that goes by that name & I’ve never been to Kepong. Yeah, he did mention that if I’m in JB, I can contact someone to help me on this so that I do not need to go to court.
I asked him for his name and he said he’s Inspector Lee. I’m lucky I know someone working in Bukit Aman. I asked if he knows my friend, he said yes but later said my friend was in the toilet. I told him to get my friend to call me back. No call received after 3 hours, thus I called my friend directly. He told me that nobody knows him by his english name in the station and he was out for investigation at that time. He said Bukit Aman & courts will not ask people to attend court case via mesg/call. Subpoenas are issued personally by uniformed policeman to your residence.
Moral of the story, don’t believe such things unless you’ve personally received the subpoena from a uniformed policeman.
It was a weird experience but lucky escape as I’ve never heard of such scam before this. Guess they realized I’m not a fat stupid fish worth catching coz I know someone that actually works in Bukit Aman. Think you can test the caller by saying you know someone from Bukit Aman, they will back off even if it’s a phony name.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:24 am
Thevin Chandran & Associates
WISMA BUILDING
102,JALAN DATUK,
TAYTON VIEW,
Kuala Lumpur
53300
Tel; +601 7342 9558
Dear David Harthen,
My name is Mr Bahamddin Ghazali , a legal practitioner with Thevin Chandran & associates in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia .
I saw your contact and profile and decided that you could cooperate with me in this proposition.
I have a client by Name Mr. Ramsey Harthen, who was deceased in November, 2005, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.I am contacting you because you have the same last name as my deceased client and i felt that you could help me in the distribution of funding that were left in my deceased client’s bank account. This funding is closed to be declared un-serviceable by the bank as there were no indicated next of kin or next of beneficiary of the funding in the bank account.
The total amount of cash in the bank account of my deceased client is US$ 12.5 Million ( Say, Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars Only ),The bank had issued to me a notification to contact the next of kin of my deceased client for either to re-activate the bank account or to make
claim of beneficiary, of the funding in the bank account, with a month surcharge of 6% to be deducted as an Escrow safe keeping fee of the bank account, so
as to avoid the indefinite closure of the bank account.
My proposition to you is to seek your consent, and to present your kind self as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my deceased client, since you have the same last name with him.
This means that the proceeds of his bank account would be paid to you as his next of kin or the legitimate beneficiary. When the proceeds in his bank account are paid to you, we would share the proceeds on a mutually agreed-upon percentage of 60% to me and 40% to your kind self. All the legal documents to back up your claim as my client’s next-of-kin would be provided by me. The most important thing I would need is your honest cooperation in this proposition.This would be done
under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you from any breach of the law.
If this business proposition offends your moral and ethical values,feel free to back out. Please contact me at once if you are interested reply through
my personal email (bahamddinghazali@myway.com ).
Regards,
Barr. Bahamddin Ghazali M.ESQ
Senior Advocate/Solicitor.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:28 am
Also his website was invalid!
Beware of the Bastage!
Davibuoy
November 25th, 2007 at 3:32 am
I just received the follwing! Same exact letter as above!! Major scam!
Thevin Chandran & Associates
WISMA BUILDING
102,JALAN DATUK,
TAYTON VIEW,
Kuala Lumpur
53300
Tel; +601 7342 9558
Dear (choosing my name to be annonymous),
My name is Mr Bahamddin Ghazali , a legal practitioner with Thevin Chandran & associates in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia .
I saw your contact and profile and decided that you could cooperate with me in this proposition.
I have a client by Name Mr. Ramsey Jenne, who was deceased in November, 2005, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.I am contacting you because you have the same last name as my deceased client and i felt that you could help me in the distribution of funding that were left in my deceased client’s bank account. This funding is closed to be declared un-serviceable by the bank as there were no indicated next of kin or next of beneficiary of the funding in the bank account.
The total amount of cash in the bank account of my deceased client is US$ 12.5 Million ( Say, Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars Only ),The bank had issued to me a notification to contact the next of kin of my deceased client for either to re-activate the bank account or to make
claim of beneficiary, of the funding in the bank account, with a month surcharge of 6% to be deducted as an Escrow safe keeping fee of the bank account, so
as to avoid the indefinite closure of the bank account.
My proposition to you is to seek your consent, and to present your kind self as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my deceased client, since you have the same last name with him.
This means that the proceeds of his bank account would be paid to you as his next of kin or the legitimate beneficiary. When the proceeds in his bank account are paid to you, we would share the proceeds on a mutually agreed-upon percentage of 60% to me and 40% to your kind self. All the legal documents to back up your claim as my client’s next-of-kin would be provided by me. The most important thing I would need is your honest cooperation in this proposition.This would be done
under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you from any breach of the law.
If this business proposition offends your moral and ethical values,feel free to back out. Please contact me at once if you are interested reply through
my personal email (bahamddin_ghazali@myway.com).
Regards,
Barr. Bahamddin Ghazali M.ESQ
Senior Advocate/Solicitor.
December 13th, 2007 at 2:30 am
I received the same message I immidatly suspected it coz my family name is an lebanese name and there s no lebanese in malysia hehe . but i send him an email tell him yes just to know what he will say and i m still waiting his reply
December 17th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Thank god for this website…i received exactly the same and honestly was gullible to believe this….and was replying back and forth with emails as I said I would go ahead but it wasnt till a couple days later I asked my parents if we had any family in Malaysia….they said no and I was like “oh shit…” I sent my ID passport number but did not send through the $1000 us fee they requested…..this is what they replied….
“Dear Fatialofa,
Thank you for your mail, the amount of funds you mention here will not be enuogh to send to the court., I advice you to rise up to $500 United States Dollars so that I will know how to present your case before the high court. Below is the court registrar data:
Name: FERIANA MAHYUNI.
State: KUALA LUMPU
Country: MALAYSIA
Note: make sure you send me the copy of the payment slip via e-email attachment
to avoid mistakes . so that first thing tommorrow morning i will file your information before the cour for approval.
Wait for your positive reply
Regards
Barrister..
Can anyone please help as I am from NZ, how do I prevent this bastard from using my ID….why do people scam….what asses…
December 17th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Cordilia… I can’t offer much help here. Personally I doubt that your passport number could be used for any further scam… as mentioned in some comments above, informations like IC or passport numbers are easily obtainable from other sources… what they want from these scams are probably straight forward cash.
March 16th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
How we can stop this scam through Feriana Mahyuni with account number 0182200004463 EON Bank (fucking). I’m lost some money and realize after they told me have a problem with transfer fund. But I’m already give them IC no and Account no, can you advise me
March 16th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Caution with scam through email, Feriana Mahyuni account 0182200004463.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:08 am
The email is a form of advanced fee fraud which originated in Nigeria. It is also known as a 419 scam, so called after the section of the Nigerian criminal code which it violates. This scam attempts to tempt the recipient with the promise of a lottery win, inheritance or a large sum of money from a supposedly dormant account. The fraudsters are hoping you’ll subsequently reveal your banking details. The emails typically ask you to pay an advance fee, tax or bribe to complete the deal - but you will lose any money you pay.
These scams are so common because they are easy to perpetrate and difficult to stop. If you receive any emails of this nature, please forward them on to ourselves and then delete them. If you believe that you or someone you know is being targeted by fraudsters then please contact the SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime OCU at fraud.alert@met.police.uk, or your local law enforcement agency if you do not reside in the United Kingdom.
In the meantime, if you need any further information or advice with regards to online security, please click on the following link:
http://www.lloydstsb.com/security.asp
Kind Regards
Fraud Response Team
March 28th, 2008 at 1:18 am
My name is Mr. Bryan Rowe, a legal practitioner with Rowe & Co Law Firm in Bedfordshire United Kingdom. I saw your contact profile and decided that you could cooperate with me in this proposition.
I have a client who was deceased in November 2004, In Greatham Hampshire, United Kingdom. I am contacting you because you have the same surname with my deceased client and i felt that you could help in distribution of funds that were left in my deceased client’s account. This fund is close to being declared UN-serviceable by the finance house as there were no indicated next of kin or beneficiary of the fund in the account, having remained dormant for long.
The total amount of cash in the account of my deceased client is GBP4.7M ( Four Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds Only ). The finance house had issued me a notification to contact the next of kin to the said fund, to make beneficiary claim with a month surcharge of 6% to be deducted as an Escrow safe keeping fee of the account, so as to avoid indefinite closure of the account.
My proposition to you is to seek your prior consent, to present you as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my deceased client, since you have the same last name with him. This means that the proceeds of his estate would be paid to you as his next of kin or the legitimate beneficiary. When the proceeds in his account are paid to you, we would share the proceeds on a mutually agreed-upon percentage of 60% to me and 40% to your kind self.
All the legal documents to back up your claim as my client’s next of-kin would be provided by me. What i need most is your honest cooperation in this proposition. This transaction is hitch-free, and would be done under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you from any breach of law.
Please contact me at once on receipt of this mail. You can as well, reach me directly on phone, +44703186318172.
Sincerely,
Bryan Rowe Esq.
August 12th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
i have got the same scenario but now it involved the parcel that has sent to me and bla bla bla.. and gosh she email me to payhe sum in ringgit malaysia to clear custume release and all. shame on her