It does not take much for one to lose their money in a scam, as Dato’ Ho Fong Lee (何欢利) discovered. After all, a simple click can lead to you giving away more information than you mean to. What’s worse is that sometimes, these scams can be impossible to stop.
Dato’ Ho Fong Lee had been scrolling through Facebook when he saw ads about hiring a maid. Curious, he clicked into one. Unfortunately, that led to him losing almost RM100,000. To make matters worse, despite him catching the scam in time, he was unable to prevent the scammers from getting away with the rest of his cash!
The chairman of the Malaysia China Ho Chamber of Global Commerce shared that he had not expected the Facebook link to lead to something so malicious. According to Dato’ Ho, he had simply clicked on the advertisement on a whim after seeing it several times on his feed. He allegedly had no intentions of hiring a maid at all.
Dato’ Ho Fong Lee claimed there had to be a security loophole in Facebook’s advertising system if they allowed such false advertisements. Additionally, he expressed his unhappiness with how the bank had handled his case. The scammers had allegedly swept out his account within half an hour, leaving only RM7,200. Supposedly, that means about RM800 to RM20,000 was transferred out on an average of 1.7 minutes.
Dato’ Ho pointed out that he had not received any notifications about the money transference, despite him having a daily limit set on his account. Also, he claimed he had contacted the bank immediately once he realised what had happened. At that time, only RM7,200 was left in his bank. Although the bank promised to freeze his account, they were apparently too slow. The scammers reportedly managed to steal the remainder of the cash.
“I feel very helpless and angry,” Dato’ Ho Fong Lee later told China Press. “I don’t think this should be happening to banks.” The chairman of MCCC admitted he probably should not have clicked on the link, adding he previously had not been alert about various fraud methods.
“But, what everyone should know is that there are loopholes in the bank’s security system. They cannot guarantee that people’s deposits are absolutely safe,” he said. Dato’ Ho Fong Lee also reportedly thinks he has no hope of reclaiming the RM100,000 he lost.
