Sany Woo's Blog

MUAR: The next time you get an e-mail from a friend or relative saying they are stranded or have been robbed while overseas and need urgent cash to get back, chances are it is a scam.

Federal Commercial Crimes director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun advised Internet users to be cautious as there are Internet scams nationwide.

“If known names send distress e-mails requesting for financial help, try verifying the facts as there are a lot of scams out there,” he said, adding that many originated from overseas.

“These syndicates obtain peoples’ e-mail information when they send them spam mails requesting for username or passwords on the pretext of upgrading their e-mail accounts.”

Comm Koh advised Internet users to regularly change their passwords, use a password that would be hard to guess, never reveal the password to anyone and have a copy of the Internet address book just in case if you need to inform people that your e-mail has been hacked into.

In a recent case in Johor, a victim, who only wanted to be known as Leong said that he had received an official e-mail from Yahoo! saying that he needed to provide them with his particulars, including his password to upgrade their services.

“The next day I got a shock when I received over 20 calls and SMSes from friends and family asking if I was in trouble and needed help.

“They told me that they had received an e-mail from me saying that I was overseas and someone had stolen all my money and I desperately needed some money,” he said.

Leong said the e-mail also included a London-based address where his friends and family could forward their money.

“I immediately called up my closest friends and warned them of the scam,” he said but found two of them had believed the message and forwarded their credit card details to the sender.

“Now I cannot access my e-mail and I have lost all my contacts.

“I am also not sure how many other people in my contact list have forwarded money or their credit card information after reading the e-mail,” he said.

Author: Nelson Benjamin and Desiree Tresa Gasper

Source: TheStar Online

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PETALING JAYA: Scrutinise your mobile phone bills thoroughly or you may end up paying for “unsolicited services.”

Users can be charged up to RM100 extra for various types of content sent via short-messaging service (SMS) by external providers who hook up with network providers.

However, the policy of the network providers over such SMSes is not clear.

When contacted by The Star, a customer service officer said mobile phone users were charged once the SMS was despatched — even if the user does not read the SMS. “We cannot do anything about it,” the officer said.

“Once they send out an SMS to you, you will be charged.” But another officer from the company said the user would have to reply with a certain code before a charge was imposed.

Such SMSes cost between RM2 and RM5 each, and many customers have complained that their monthly bills have spiked with such unsolicited charges. Some complained that these SMSes were usually only sent to supplementary lines.

“We are so busy that we usually do not check their details. Why is it that I have never had such SMSes sent to my main line?” one user said. Questions are also being raised as to how the content providers got hold of the mobile numbers.

Richard Wong from Tawau claimed he was charged about RM100 in his October bill for such services, adding that the amount was slapped on his son’s prepaid line.

“The prepaid amount from my son’s mobile line was deducted on a regular basis without his knowledge.” The issue has even been highlighted by certain bloggers, with one describing such unsolicited SMS services as a “scam”.

There are presently 29.62 million mobile phone users in the country, 6.2 million of them postpaid and the rest prepaid.

A DiGi Telecommunications Bhd spokesman said the company had no fixed arrangement with content providers, adding that its mobile number database was not released to them.

“Customers must have performed certain downloads in the past or have given consent to businesses to receive selected information.”

“The content providers must have kept the subscribers’ mobile numbers to cross-sell or promote their services.”

A Maxis Bhd official said a preventive system was put in place since 2007, whereby users were automatically protected from receiving unsolicited SMSes from unauthorised parties.

Author: Joshua Foong

Source: TheStar Online

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TheStar Online (June 17, 2009)

KUALA LUMPUR: Spammers are diversifying their reach to popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Network security company Symantec Corp said it has observed that Twitter, in particular, has become a target for phishing activities.

In these instances, it said, computer users are misled into logging into fake Twitter accounts or providing personal information and credit card details.

It also said spam attacks have leveraged on Twitter via two spam campaigns: Make Money Fast (MMF) and one that targets the Twitter dating site, Datetwit.

Symantec warned computer users to watch out for these e-mail headers; Twitter Guru Reveals All On Video; Use Twitter To Make Money; and Teenagers Are Playing Online And Making Grundles Of Money.

For Twitter, it said, the spammers creatively evade antispam filters by obfuscating e-mail messages with legitimate content.

According to Symantec, spammers continue to harvest e-mail messages and personal information by promoting a wide variety of products that include diabetes-related treatments.

The World Health Organisation has said that there are at least 170 million diabetic patients worldwide and that the number will double by 2030.

These diabetics, said Symantec, are potential targets for spammers taking advantage of those seeking cheaper treatments or medical products online.

Symantec said its State of Spam reports are a means of educating the public, as well as businesses, on the evolving challenges of keeping the Internet secure.

A full version of this report is available for download at
http://go.symantec.com/spam_report.

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What I am going to relate below is my personal experience with credit card fraud. I hope to pass this message out so you will take necessary precautions to prevent any financial loss and identity theft.

Feel free to pass this message on to your contacts if you think it will help raise their awareness on credit card fraud.

It started with a simple sms…

Translation:
AXXXXX: Respected client, On 5/10/08 you have used your credit card at IOI Mall for amount RM4966, transaction code:CH875A, please make payment as soon as possible. Tel:03-79520900

I was alarmed to receive this sms because firstly, I have cancelled my credit card with this bank a few years ago and secondly, I have not been to IOI Mall for a long time.

Immediately I called the number stated in the sms and a Mr Tan picked up my call. He claims he works for the Customer Service Department of AXXXXX located at PJ.

Mr Tan told me that a person has applied for a Gold Master credit card from the bank on August 16, 2008 at their branch with a credit limit of RM5,000. This person used a home address at Taman Meru Utama, Klang on the application form.

On November 2, 2008, this person has swiped for the amount RM4966 using the credit card.

When I informed him that I did not apply for the card and that someone else has fraudulently used my identity, he asked me to call Bank Negara (the Central Bank) to report on this matter and to request Bank Negara to conduct an investigation and to issue an instruction to AXXXXX to suspend the credit card account. Meanwhile, he will notify his supervisor and they will conduct their own investigation on this matter.

He kindly gave me the Bank Negara’s number to call: 03-79661004 and specifically asked me to call this number.

Now I am really sure something fishy is going on because Bank Negara is located at KL but he gave me a number with a different area code. Another thing is that, with the necessary approvals, the bank itself can suspend the account without going through Bank Negara I am sure.

After that, I asked Mr Tan a few questions relating to the bank’s procedures on credit card transactions but he gave unsatisfactory answers. He kept asking me to call Bank Negara to report my case.

To find out more (or just plain curious) I went along with his advice and called the number he gave me and a Chinese lady called Carmen picked up the call. She continued speaking in Malay to me though I replied her in English. Very odd.

I briefly told her that I want to report on a credit card fraud whereby someone used my identity to apply for a credit card with AXXXXX and used the card last year.

After that, we went through a simple Q&A session of who, what, when, where, why, how…

Then it came to the last question… she asked me to disclose all my ATM and credit card numbers with all the banks I currently hold….

I ask her why she need this information. Her reply was… when Bank Negara run a check on all the credit card and bank accounts under my name, they will be able to know if the syndicate used my identity to apply for credit cards from other banks and suspend those accounts also (is that so?).

I then ask her if it is necessary for me to personally go to Bank Negara to fill a form with these information instead but she says… no, it is not necessary. After that, I told her that I do not have the numbers with me because I am currently not at home.

Told her that I will call back again the next day with the information because it is close to the end of their office hours (ie. 5pm). She then gave me a reference number, saying that I just need to call back with the information and provide the reference number so that I do not need to go through the whole process again.

She also reminded me, as a precaution, not to inform anyone, including my family members, about this matter for 3 days. This was the time needed for Bank Negara to conduct an investigation on my case. The reason being that they were afraid that someone close to me might be behind this fraud.

Don’t you feel they are really good at making you feel fearful of financial and identity loss and distrustful of the people around you, so that they can milk out the information they need from you?

After that, I called up the telephone directory assistance and asked for the telephone numbers of the PJ branch of AXXXXX and Bank Negara. Not surprising… the numbers do not match.

I called the two numbers a few days later but was unable to get through…

When I called the Contact Center for AXXXXX at 1300-80-XXXX, the person who picked up my call checked and confirmed that I do not have any active accounts with the bank.

She also told me previously there were cases in which people got duped in the same manner by this syndicate. Some of them have even lodged police reports.

With the current economic downturn, there are many unscrupulous people going around preying on unsuspecting victims for financial gains instead of earning money legally.

Please be very careful and remember to never disclose your personal, credit cards and banking accounts information to anyone.

Best regards,

Sany Woo @ http://sanywoo.com

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TheStar Online (January 8, 2009)

KUALA LUMPUR: Consumers have been warned not to be fooled by con men calling up to offer discounts for those who use credit cards to pay for purchases at hypermarkets.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said he too had received two such calls on his handphone.

The callers had urged him to sign up for a scheme that offered a 25% discount when buying goods from hypermarkets using his credit card.

He believed that the syndicate members, who he said could be foreigners based on their accents, were out to obtain the details of his credit card so that they could clone it.

“The callers said their company was based in Menara KL or KL Tower. When asked for the exact location of the office they said it was on the fourth floor but did not reveal the name of the company or its lot number,” he said.

His suspicions were aroused when they said things like only VIPs were allowed into the office and no form needed to be filled by card holders, adding that the discount cards would be sent by courier to their homes.

However, he said, no one had so far reported being duped by this particular syndicate.

His department’s legal adviser, Sam Yeong, said a credit card holder could be sued by the bank which issued the card for giving out the card’s number to a third party.

“Card holders are not supposed to reveal their credit card number to a third party. It is negligence on their part if they do so,” he said.

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