Since that this practice of illegally obtaining information of buyers either from "middle men" or directly from developers or banks are rampant. I have decided to name and shame these property agents who practise this irresponsible act.
Now, don't get me wrong, I have sent the information to the relevant authorities such as SKMM and PDP, but it seems like nothing is working. So I'll just put my findings here. You be the judge.
If the mod feels this is inappropriate, please feel free to delete this. I personally feel that the cavalier attitude of people who handle personal data should be made aware that there must be consequences. Our authorities are not doing enough (see the Great Malaysian Data Breach as reported by LYN) hence we must protect ourselves.
I think the only way is to hurt their reputation. They must know that this practice is not OK.
1. Simon Realty E (3) 1451
Agent: Nicky Ling Tel No: 017-9888339
Background: I'm the owner of a newly VPed SOHO and received a message. I called him posing as an interested person and he said he bought the information from a so-called "middle man" named "Joseph". When asked further on how to contact this "Joseph" he said he will message me, but up till today no news.
2. Technilai Estate Agents E (3) 1527
Agents: CK Yap Tel No: 017-8822191 and Irene Tel No: 012-337 2998
Background: Same property. Whatsapp and asked him what is the source of the information. He came up with a made up story of one "Mr Lee" another owner, who passed on my information. Pressed on further, but he couldn't come up with the source.
I have a few more spam and will update once I get their company's name.
The information here is true at time of writing.
Edit 1: Updated with conversation with Irene.
Update 13/12/2017: Got a call from Maxis and they said they have suspended the Maxis numbers as the numbers exhibit spam patterns. It's in their usage policy that they can suspend numbers if it's used as spam. That's a small win I guess. But it's their own words, they could have just said it and done nothing about it, and I have no way to know.
Also got a reply from PDP. This time a longer one as other replies before only contained an automated reply. They said that commercial contacts without our consent are not illegal (contrary to the PDPA 2010 Section 7, Notice and Choice Principle), but we have the right to give a written reply to spammer to stop and delete all our data. Only if it was not complied, then only it is an offence. Well, that's our government folks.
This post has been edited by kelvinlym: Dec 13 2017, 04:06 PM
Property agents who buy buyers' information, You be the judge