Lucky draw scam from PRC/Hong Kong?

[Emkay]

Recently I received a phone survey from someone who claimed to work for a company in Hong Kong wanting to setup branch here.

Few weeks later, they said they are having some event at JB, Tebrau City Jusco shopping complex on one of the Sunday and invited me to attend.

 

I did not go to the event.

 

2 weeks later they called me up again and said I have won their 2nd prize (cash prize)

 

All the activities are conducted in Mandarin with over 10-15 phone calls.

 

So far they did not ask me to buy anything but said to verify my identity and asked a lawyer from Hong Kong to contact me. Basically they got my NRIC number, d.o.b., my bank account number (say for the purpose to crediting the price money).

 

The way I look at it, these are information easily obtainable with various technic (e.g. dumpster diving) and I have not much to lose so I gave them these data.

(In one of my previous job, when running a lucky draw, we easily get about 1 million records of these information even with address and family member's information, so if this is a scam, why go through so much trouble ?)

 

My questions are:

- has anyone else received similar phone calls?

- How can they take advantage of these information collected if this is a scam?

- What else do I look out for?

[Acemundo]

i received an almost similar call

 

on the first day (monday), told them i very busy, can't be bothered, don't contact me. gave them my fake name

 

yesterday, called me again told me the charity event is taking place at that moment and why i didn't come down to take part in the charity event. i told them i busy, no time to attend.

 

today called me, told me i won the 2nd prize.....cash prize of USD60k......i told them i don't believe...of course they try to convince me with their story of the prize being contributed by Cathay blah blah.....

 

thereafter, asked for my details to be sent to their auditor to prepare the prize. of course, i gave them some fake details.......thereafter, they asked me to visit their website and call their auditor to arrange for the prize money to be sent to me......i told them i busy, no time to call the auditor.....

 

haha....so it seems like this scam is quite widespread here. if they call me again, i can ask them how come my friend, Mr Emkay also strike the second prize? hehe....

[Blueray]

I just hang up cos I know its a scam.

[Acemundo]

anyway, my believe is they are gathering your personal information to con you or your family members in future...

 

then probably few months later, one of them may pretend to be kidnapper of you and call your family. telling your family member they know your address, nric number blah blah to prove their claim they got hold of you.

 

or they can pretend to be calling from your bank or your credit card company, read your nric and address to you to prove their authenticity and then scam you with some other things.

 

that's why i purposely gave fake information......so if few weeks or months later these scammsters try to scam me or my family members, i will know that it originated from this particular call that i suspected

[Emkay]

Good tactic ...

 

I'll give them Mr. Lee's NRIC next ...

[Tarzan666]

another thread on scam?

wow..so many types these days..so creative..

[Try_conti]

have. 1st thing they asked is whether I speak mandarin & they asked in Mandarin ! ....

 

It seems that they are targetting chinese only .....

 

Of course, straight away i know its one of those scam & i purposely answer in english & ask question in english .. end up they gave up .....

[Paikia_rav]

This is a variant of the Nigerian Advance Fee Scam or the 419 scam. The modus operandi is basically after they lure you with the price money, they will ask for an advance fee for 'tax, admin charges, bank charges etc', and when you do just that, they will disappear after squeezing you dry.

[Emkay]

Good to know that and thanks for sharing the information.

 

I have almost all of the phone conversation recorded and have drop Hong Kong police an email (since this group uses Hong Kong phone and fax numbers to contact me).

 

Let see how things develop..

[Try_conti]

maybe you should just go ahead & report to HK police since you have all the recorded conversation. If they value HK image, they'll take action.

 

Else HK become a con-haven for these scammers.

[Princey_anne]

I received a call today, stupid woman instead of hello, she ask in english "DO YOU SPEAK CHINESE." I was annoyed by the tone, you can tell it is a PRC. I replied, I don't speak to you dun call or you will be reported.

Edited October 24, 2007 by Princey_anne

[Comfy]

rather common... when i was working in tw.. i got calls calling me 'dad, pls save me, i'm kidnapped ' sound of a kid.. but some chee-na kid.. i not even married, why got kids...

Edited October 24, 2007 by Comfy

[Comfy]

that's the way...

[Emkay]

haha, skali kidnapper call wrong number ...

 

so how did u respond?

[Comfy]

oh.. i replied,' xiao ming, is that u??' u know what that boy replied' yes, its xiao ming, come save me' .... then a adult took over the phone.. demanding nt$2,000,000... then i cooly said' sorry ar, i forgot i got no son, u call wrong person'

[Acemundo]

haha recently newspapers reported a few singaporeans also conned by this trick......

 

"kidnapper" ask the conned to transfer money immediately but not to hang up or the conned's son will be dead.....the trick is to make the conned have no time to call directly to his son to verify and make the conned so nervous as to transfer money immediately.......

 

haha but ur response really witty and cool......must learn from you.

[Freestylers09]

lucky u didnt say since u know its scam liao :" kill him lor...like tat i got 10 million insurance claim and i muz thank u"..the guy sure tio chua one

[Comfy]

risk management very important ley..