With people turning to online shopping due to the COVID-19 lockdown, conmen are reportedly taking advantage of this trend with COD (cash-on-delivery) scams.

One such case involves a woman known as Norashikin Othman, from Negeri Sembilan, who recently almost paid RM279 in return for an empty parcel!

Taking to Facebook, Norashikin, 29, said that the incident happened last week when her husband told her that he was awaiting a parcel via delivery service Ninja Van, which was supposed to contain a watch he had bought for RM279 - prized way lower than its original tag of above RM1,000.

When the parcel arrived, the woman asked to check the contents of the parcel before payment was made, but the delivery man said it was not allowed under the company's procedures.

However, the alert man also noted that the box was remarkably light, as if it contained nothing.

Upon checking, the woman found out that her husband had purchased the watch via Facebook from overseas, but he couldn't recall when.

The delivery man then told her that such cross-border items are commonly involved in scams, and a lot of packages he had unknowingly sent to customers had been such items.

After establishing that the box was "cheap looking to store an item prized in the hundreds, and was indeed empty, Norashikin said that she refused to accept the parcel, and stressed that it was perfectly fine to do so.

Her post has since garnered more than 3,000 likes and over 16,000 shares.



According to lifestyle portal SAYS, Ninja Van Logistics Sdn Bd country head Adzim Halim had previously acknowledged that the company had indeed previously come across COD scams.

He noted that the company is only responsible to send packages sent by foreign sellers through freight forwarders, to customers. Once payment is collected from buyers during delivery, it will then be passed to the freight forwarder, who, in turn, will pay the sellers.

In such instances, there have been cases of customers receiving a random item that costs way less than what they had paid for, or sometimes, absolutely nothing at all.

Thanks to Norashikin and the delivery rider's vigilance, she managed to escape from losing money to conmen.

The next time you shop online, know that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

When shopping online, make sure you purchase only from established, reliable sellers who sell items for a justifiable price. In addition, always keep track of what you are buying, and have bought, so that you don't end up paying your hard-earned cash for nothing.

In case something does go wrong, reach out to the logistic company involved so that they can help you find a remedy.


Source: SAYS, The Rakyat Post
Photo source: Ninja Van