Fuelled by a large spike in the scam, S. Sree Priya is one of the victims who have recently fallen for scams. The 46-year-old floral decorator was recently scammed out of a staggering RM12,000 when she engaged with a cleaning service advertisement on Facebook.
According to Sree, she came across a cleaning app service by the name of Jason and was instructed to visit the company's website and download an application for verification purposes.
She then proceeded by filling in her details and making a payment of RM10 deposit so that she would be qualified for the special rate to clean her Johor Bahru homestay property.
However, things got awry when she received a phone call from a bank at 2.10am. As she felt suspicious over the number, Sree refused to answer the call. Somehow, it prompted her to call the hotline number and was informed that she had performed four transactions of RM2,999 each from 8.32am to 11.07pm.
Realising something went wrong with her mobile phone after using the cleaning app.
“All my contacts' names on Whatsapp have vanished, with only their profile pictures. My relatives had advised me not to worry about it because my phone was probably resetting itself, so I didn't bother to look into it anymore," she stated.
Taking this as a serious matter, Kluang police district chief ACP Bahrin Mohd Noh has urged the public to be cautious when engaging with online advertisements, especially when they appear to be too good to be true.
"Numerous offers with absurd prices can be found on social media. Please be sure that any apps you download are from trustworthy sources, like the Apple Store or Google Play Store "he said
On the side, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani has also warned the public about the cases involving online sales scams, online trading scams, African scams, Macau scams, Business Email Compromised (BEC) scams, fake loans, and SMS scams.
If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer, contact the bank hotline or financial advisor immediately. Please stay vigilant and beware of scams or phishing attempts.
Image Credit & Source: NST
Revathi
Wed Dec 14 2022