LessonInLife’s Lucky Draw update - I am now announcing that it is now officially closed. No additional participation will be accepted. Thank you to all 24 readers participating. I really appreciate your support. I will now be constructing my very complex randomizer and will post the lucky winners tomorrow.

Summary - Sometimes, being skeptical is a must

Listed below are 7 situation where you must remember exactly how to respond.

1) When someone persuade you to invest money to gain more money

• “How does the scheme make money in the first place?”

2) When someone give you freebie

• “How will you benefit from this?”

3) When someone told you that you’re family

• “How again are we exactly connected?”

4) When someone tell you he’s a police and demand to be allowed inside your house

• “Which police station send you?” (And called the respective station to verify)

5) When someone says “I love you”

• “What about me that you love?”

6) When a stranger ask you to hold on to his luggage while he’s going to the loo

• “Anything illegal in there?”

7) When someone ask for your money to buy bus ticket?

• “Where do you want to go? Let me buy the ticket for you.” (More about this experience here)

I know, all the replies do potray you as being very suspicious. But, I do believe, we are now living in a world where some people are making money from other’s honesty and kindness.

I was recently actually approached by a friend of mine to invest about USD50K (That’s RM150,000) and was promised a guaranteed income of 10% of investment every month until I die. Can you believe that? That’s like you received a total interest of 120% every year.

The first question I asked, is exactly like I mentioned above - “Where does the money come from?” and the answer given was very abstract and general, I’m not so sure he understood what he’s saying too. Thus I find it even harder to believe.

Conclusion - There’s nothing wrong with being suspicious / skeptical when it comes to strangers and money.

———- Personal Note ———-
There are some questions which you must know and give out the answer straight away. I remembered an episode of FRIENDS where Ross is teaching Chandler some tips on how to communicate with his girlfriend.

“When your girlfriend ask you is she fat? Don’t look up and down, just immediately say NO :)”

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It’s been a while since I post an entry on scam awareness. Basically, what I’m trying to do is to highlight some of the popular scam which is going on. It’s sad but even with the on-going education of scam awareness, people still fall for it. Hopefully my little contribution here will tip the scale a bit.

I received this email recently. To save some space, I’m attaching the whole email at the comment section.

Generally, The person’s name is Larry and he is a director of a bank in Ghana. One of his client apparently died leaving $4.5 million with no heir to claim them.

Now, he’s asking whether I can present as the next kin to collect the money. If I agree I will be awarded with 30% of the wholel amount. That’s very gracious don’t you think?

/end email

Why it is confirmed a scam? (Please refer to the email in the comment section)

• There’s no explanation as to where he got my email. Even so, if you are about to do an illegal transaction involving millions of dollars, will you believe a complete stranger?
• There is one flaw. The client was said to die on the 21st of April 2001. That’s 7 years difference.
• The usage of a yahoo email is very suspicious looking.
• I’ve received about 2 or 3 emails very similar to this. A clear sign

How it scams?
It starts very convincingly that you bear no risk at all. But in time, I can guarantee you that the scammer will start asking you to deposit some money with the reason that his account is being monitored.

The amount may not be that much. Maybe a few hundred dollars. And you will be tempted since comparing that amount to the millions you will be receiving, that is nothing.

The scammer will then ask for more money to be used for other administration fee. This time it will be in thousands of dollars. He will even guarantee you your money back anytime you want.

Of course your money is already lost.

- I wonder -
Have you ever received emails alike?

Disclaimer - I am not by any chance associating Ghana with scam. It just so happen that the email I received stated the name.

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Summary - Tips to avoid being “pau”ed

Have you ever experienced this? you were walking in KL (That’s Kuala Lumpur) when suddenly a stranger walked alongside with you and started to talk to you. After a quick talk he persuasively asked for money giving excuses and all.

Well, it happened to me quite often. I guess I had that look of a non-KL’ian. This is a story of one of them

It was about 6-7 years ago, I was actually walking to the KTM station to buy a ticket for the commuter. Suddenly a man with a bag came to me and said hi. According to him, he was supposed to go back to Klang, and he didn’t have enough money. Looking at him, somehow I felt like helping, so I asked him how much did he need? and surprisingly, he asked for a two way ticket.

I started to be suspicious with him. A man who is desperate will not ask for more money than he needed. Why would he need a two way ticket?

I however, said fine.. but I will buy him the ticket. Guess what? he said that there’s no need, just give him the money and he will buy it himself.

I then walked away…

/end story

Now that was a few years back, I wonder what scam they are doing right now. I unfortunately had quite a number of experience being “kena pau” (I believe that is the term used for the activity). One by a person claimed to be just released from prison with no money and wanting to go to Taiping. Another needed some money to go to clinic (He actually screamed at me cursing when I walked away) and the funniest is a man asking for money to watch a movie.

Tips that may help to avoid being “pau”

• Always travel in groups or in pairs
• Try to blend in with the crowd confidently
• These people actually target those with huge bags
• Be paranoid in anything that involve in you surrendering your money, what ever the cause.
• When somebody approach you suspiciously, start walking to the police or security guard, and ask him to help the person.
• There will be however a person that will really need our help, If a person ask me for money to buy bus ticket, and agreed if I can buy him the ticket.. I will definitely help him.

—- I wonder —-
Have you had any experience being “pau”ed? If yes, what do you do? If not, What will you do?

———- Personal Experience ————-
Life sure is interesting Alhamdulillah… hm by the way, does anyone know the English word for this activity (pau)? It’s not mugged since you can choose not to give him any money..

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Summary - Scam Via MSN/YM (any instant messenger) exposed

I promised another two factors to success yesterday for today, but I have come across another topic which is more important. So that two factors will have to wait.. Can it?

There is a scam going on this time around. I’m not sure whether it is old news or new, but I’m going to put it here for our reference.

I read about this in a thread in Lowyat.net forum, you can read the full story here. But in short, The scammer was able to login to an MSN account, and then he started chatting with the friends listed. Not long after that, he will ask the friend for a favor saying that he cannot login to Maybank2U (an online banking service in Malaysia). He asked the friends to transfer RM400 to an account, which he said was a seller’s. The scammer claim that he bought an item and now owe money to this seller.

The friend, being a nice fellow… transfered the money, and with that he had lost RM400

/end

Lesson learnt

• If you are using instant messenger, make sure you log out properly when you are using it in a cyber cafe or shared computer. Most of the time, we didn’t notice that option “Remember password” is checked, and thus our account is already compromised. Some cybercafe user can even install a keylogger to the computer, so that anything you type on that computer will be recorded and sent to his email address.

• Preferably, just don’t use IM at a cybercafe

• I know this is old stuff, but please change your password. Most of the time, the password used is very common like the username, or date of birth, or full name. This is very dangerous, believe me. If you like to use that password, make ONE change to it, for example.. your password is your DOB - 771107, then just add 10 = 771117.

• Always be paranoid when money is involved. Verify with the person by calling him on the phone.

• If you are familiar with hacking, you will know the term “Social Engineering”. This is basically a method where hackers uses the weakest security in a system, which is you. He may just pretend to be a woman in distress and attack your conscience. The only way you can defend yourself, is by knowledge. Keep learning and we’ll be fine

Maybe you know any other online security tips? Please share it here

—————- Personal Note ——————
I’m very sure everyone has a story of being scammed. Why not share it with all of us. Email them to me and I will put it up here. Hopefully we don’t have to go through the same mistake twice. A new category is introduced - Scam Awareness

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A couple went golfing one day and being a beginner the wife shanked her shot right through the window of the biggest house adjacent to the course. So the couple walked up to the house and knocked on the door to apologize. A warm voice said, “Come on in.” When they opened the door they saw the damage that was done: glass was all over the place and a broken antique bottle was lying on its side near the broken window.

A man (genie) reclining on the couch asked, “Are you the people that broke my bottle?”

Husband : “Uh…yeah, sir. We’re very sorry about that,”

Genie : “Oh, no apology is necessary. Actually I want to thank you. You see, I’m a genie and I’ve been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. Now that you’ve released me, I’m allowed to grant three wishes. I’ll give you each one wish, but if you don’t mind, I’ll keep the last one for myself.”

Husband : “Wow, that’s great! hmmm I’d like a million dollars a year for the rest of my life.”

Genie : “No problem, You’ve got it, it’s the least I can do. And I’ll guarantee you a long, healthy life! And now you, young lady, what do you want?”

Wife : “I’d like to own a gorgeous home complete with servants in every country in the world.”

Genie : “Consider it done, and your homes will always be safe from fire, burglary and natural disasters!”

Husband & Wife : “And now, what’s your wish, genie?”

Genie : “Well, since I’ve been trapped in that bottle and haven’t been with a woman in more than a thousand years, my wish is to have sex with your wife.”

The husband looked at his wife and said, “Gee, honey, you know we both now have a fortune and all those houses. What do you think?”

She mulled it over for a few moments and said, “You know, you’re right. Considering our good fortune, I guess I wouldn’t mind. But what about you, honey?”

“You know I love you sweetheart,” said the husband. “I’d do the same for you!”

So the genie and the woman went upstairs where they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each other. The genie was insatiable. After about three hours of nonstop sex, the genie rolled over and looked directly into the wife’s eyes. “How old are you and your husband?”

“Why, we’re both 35,” she responded breathlessly.

“No kidding! Thirty-five years old and both of you still believe in genies?”

Lesson learnt :

• When something seems too good to be true, it usually is
• This is actually the strategy used by most scams nowadays, they excite you with offer and rewards. They will make you feel like an idiot if letting this go. You then trust them a bit and maybe spend a few ringgit. What’s the harm right? they then offer you with super attractive rewards, if only you spend a bit more. By the time you realise that this is all a scam, the money spent is not claimable.
• Sometime being paranoid is ok. Hm maybe paranoid is too strong a word, be cautious

————— Personal Note ————————–
My first scam experience is probably those chain letter persuading you to donate RM2 to the first person in the list. Then you make another list, erasing his name and change the sequence with your name at the bottom of the list. Then the letter must be distributed to 20 other people. I was Form 2 when I got the letter, and I actually donated the RM2.. Thats RM2 I’m never going to see again. :p

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