I would like to share my thought with everyone regarding the advance-fee fraud. Advance-fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded the victims to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain. Among the most popular type of scam are the Nigerian Letter, Spanish Prisoner, Russian Scam, Ukrainian Scam and Black Money Scam. Nigerian Scam and Russian Scam stand for dissimilar organized-crime traditions which they tend to use different way of approaches. There are many variations on the most common stories, and also many variations on the way the scam works. The victim is deceived by some disproportionately large gain into sending an advance payment which once made is irrecoverable. Scammers often request that payments be made using a wire transfer service like Western Union and Moneygram. The reason given by the scammer usually relates to the speed at which the payment can be received and processed, allowing quick release of the supposed payoff. The real reason is that wire transfers and similar methods of payment are irreversible, untraceable and, because identification beyond knowledge of the details of the transaction is often not required, completely anonymous.

In purchasing goods and services cases. They list the (non-existent) high value items with a very low price as bait to attract buyers eager to buy immediately. For example, the mobile phone market price is RM 2500 while the scammer sells it at RM 500. Ridiculous! Looks too good to be true. But that’s how they bait the victim. The payment required may be the full price, or a deposit, but it would not be an insignificant fee. The victims never see the items, as it does not exist. The scammer use e-mail only, as they know that the sound of their voice and their attitude will give them away as being high risk.

Recent case, the buyer bought 10 mobile phones from United Kingdom but later on found out that the dealer located in Nigeria. The buyer already spent a lot of money on the transaction. Yet the dealer still doesn’t want to start the shipment to the buyer. In order for them to ship it, the dealer requires SIRIM approval and the dealer asking for money from the buyer in order for them to obtain the SIRIM approval.

The dealer said that they are going to send 2 boxes which contain 5 units for each box. Then, they asked for RM 2000 for the SIRIM approval. That’s mean RM 1000 per box. Then the buyer agreed to pay for 1 box through Western Union so that they the dealer can obtain the SIRIM approval as the buyer desperately needs it to be done.

On the next day, the dealer told the buyer that the SIRIM didn’t allowed them to ship for only 1 box because they had already registered for 2 boxes. After that, more excuses given by the dealer and the buyer never see the item until now. I believe that the buyer already fell into the trap of the advance-fee fraud. I really sympathy for what happened to the buyer.

Guys, there’s no such thing that the overseas dealer can ask for money from the buyer in order to obtain SIRIM approval. There’s no such thing that they can deal it overseas. In fact, the buyers or logistics have to do it in Malaysia either by direct to SIRIM or by using reliable SIRIM approval service consultant company such as AnsarComp. Many buyers using SIRIM approval services consultant in order to make the shipment smoother, more efficient, faster and easier. That’s very important thing to aware of. I hope everyone won’t become the next victim of such fraud.

Enjoy your shopping with peace of mind.

Sincerely,

FALIQ

This post has been edited by newbi3s: Aug 5 2010, 04:53 PM

Thanks for sharing the useful info Faliq!!!

Your welcome Yulina

Yeap, agree with Faliq.
If it sounds to good to be true, then most probably it IS not true...a FRAUD more it is!
Please check out with SIRIM for necessary approval, or if you're not sure on how to do it, get a SIRIM approval service consultant company to do it for you. Just pay some fees in exchange for your peace of mind. It's better than losing bigger amount of money for nothing.

Most importantly, don't fall for easy money or cheap bargains traps.

Yes but unfortunately, there's a lot of people still been cheated. That's sad...