21 Sept 2007

PENANG: Another housewife has fallen prey to a lucky draw scam, losing RM360,000 after responding to an SMS. 

She banked in the money into numerous accounts after receiving an SMS informing her she had won a multi-million ringgit lucky draw allegedly organised by an international hypermarket chain. 

Acting state Commercial Crime department chief Supt Shaharon Anuar Abdul Latif said the housewife was at home in Butterworth, when she received the SMS at 3pm on June 16.

“She called back the number and was told by a Mandarin-speaking man that in order to claim her windfall, she needed to pay an administration fee. 

“He was so convincing that that she used her life savings and money borrowed from friends and relatives to pay it,” he said yesterday. 

He said the housewife kept on banking in the money between June and August but her winnings never “arrived” as promised. 

“She realised that she had been cheated, when the man kept on asking for money. A police report was then lodged at the Butterworth district police headquarters on Wednesday. 

“We have already checked with the hypermarket chain management and were told that no such lucky draw was ever organised,” he said. 

Supt Shaharon Anuar said they had checked the bank accounts which were likely to have been “rented” to the syndicate by individuals from other states. 

“We will be calling up these account holders to give a statement soon. We want to know how their accounts ended up being used in the scam.” 

On Sept 10, a 32-year-old female computer analyst lodged a police report after she parted with RM560,000 upon being made to believe that she had won HK$2.86mil (RM1.43mil) in a lucky draw. 

Supt Shaharon Anuar said the department also received reports from two women, aged 34 and 49, who were cheated of RM1,700 and RM2,490 in Butterworth and George Town. 

“The public should just delete such SMSes upon getting them. These scams are perpetrated by syndicates which we believe are operating from Hong Kong and Indonesia,” he said.