The Investigator

So why am I calling myself an investigator?

Indeed yes, I feel like I’m one now. Detective Liyana.

A friend of mine received a courier from her online ‘boyfriend’ from UK and there in the parcel, the guy has placed together a cash of 5000 pound. Since there is no way for any cash to be sent via courier, she has faced so many problems in claiming the parcel from the courier company, Fast Link Express and needs her to pay RM 4,960 for the clearance administration.

I know, it sounds so unreasonable, but yes, she paid for it and this has been done via wired transfer to the courier company bank account. Later on she received another advised from them that the process of releasing her parcel needs Inland Revenue execution, thus the package and its contents has to be insured and the added valued tax has to be paid before her parcel can be dispatched and delivered to her.

But this time, she become ‘conscious’, so she refused to further pay any amount and requested for the RM 4,960.00 to be returned.

[Judgment 1: The courier company bank account is under a personal account number. If it is really a true courier company, they should have their own trade account number right?]

But it wasn’t as easy as she might think and she nitpicked her boyfriend and told him her frustration. And since the Mr. Prince Charming didn’t want to ‘loose’ her sad princess (or the money?) and get loose of her ‘trust’, he remitted 250,000 pound into her saving account. (That is like a million over Ringgit!)

He told the girl that his love is for real and he really thinks that she is his lucky charm. Jada-jada drama.

As per normal remittance procedure, he asked from her the swift code, her account number and the receiving bank details and she gave him all. Prior to that, she received another call claiming that it is from CIMB Johore, to confirm on such transfer whether it is a valid transfer. And the ‘bank officer’ advised her on the procedure to claim the amount. She has been given two choices, first to wait until they received clearance approval from BNM (as it is a very large amount and abnormally transacted into her account) which will take sometimes to be cleared and engaged tedious procedures or the second, for her to open an account in the sender’s bank, which in the Barclays Bank of UK.

After listening to the ‘branch officer’ best advice, she opted for the second, without any doubt and much deliberation.

[Judgment 2: Why should CIMB Johore called her when her home branch is in Shah Alam? And why is there no specific branch location given?]

To open an account in Barclays, she needs to have an initial deposit of 1,300 pound for the account opening and this ‘can’ just being done online. And she agreed. And the money was then transferred to the ‘bank officer’ personal account who claimed to be the middle agent of Barclays. She had as well submitted all of her personal details and the ‘account opening form’ via email to Barclays.

[Judgment 3: Can we really open an account online? I mean initial account opening. Nope, I don’t think so.]

It was until I met her the other day and she told me the whole story and she has been keeping this to herself for almost 2 weeks! Gosh! I then told her all my doubtfulness and helped her to call CIMB to check on their bank procedure and seeking advised on the next steps of actions. And after some checking, we found out that the officer who called her is not a CIMB staff but she might be the middle remittance agency in charged of the deposit clearance. So the next morning, she called her home branch and it is confirmed that they are unable to retrieve such agent. Sigh.

I did my own checking with my colleagues too, and it is confirmed to be a big time scam. Firstly, as per my manager’s advice who served Barclays before joining OCBC, they have a policy for not to communicate or ask any personal details via email and secondly, their email address is @barclays.co.uk and not as the one my friend received, barclaysfinances@mail2Uk.com.

Further to that, the contact number provided in the email, +447031862891 is a mobile number! (No bank will communicate in such manner right?)

So I went to Barclays’s website, and checked under their security clauses and practice, yes, it is indeed true as being told. I would say, from my own finding and conclusion, I don’t think it was conveyed by Barclays Bank but just a scam.

So my dearest readers please and please be aware of such scam. So should you receive such offer in the future, just disregard it by any chance. Fraudsters are ubiquitously and even my credit card has been used without my authorization twice before for some purchases made online. We never know, we might be their next victim. So do keep your personal details to yourself and not to let it be freely shared with everybody. Of course, please do not trust anyone that easy even they are our friends or somebody close to us. We never know. It is human normal penchant and desire that we just do something without much thinking when we see any opportunity. And for that desires, we might forget and become the perpetrator or becoming the victim.

For what ever that we do, think twice. Life is beautiful and sweet. How we wish that everything were nice to be true. But sometimes, and most of the time, it is just too damn good to be true.


Someone knocks my heart :)