Credit Card Scam Details Updated!
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Updated @ 12/8/2015 :
We checked in with Wendy again on her case. She informed us that AEON BiG terminated the company’s tenancy and will no longer allow them to do business there again. However, she has not heard from the police about her case.
Updated @ 6/8/2015 :
We reached out to Wendy Tong, and she kindly shared her story in much greater detail.
Thanks to her, we were able to update this article with new information and pictures. We have also posted information on the company that did this. Check it out!
FYI, there is a DIFFERENT SCAM involving AEON BiG. Take a look here!
How This Credit Card Scam Happened
This new credit card scam uses a survey and gift redemption as bait. The company that did this has since vacated the stall but they are likely to repeat this elsewhere, so be warned! Let your family and friends know!
On the 4th of August 2015, the victim Wendy Tong was approached by a promoter at a small stall in the AEON Big Mall in Bukit Rimau, Shah Alam. She was asked to fill in a survey form on green products. She kindly acquiesced even though she was on the way to the gym. At the end of the survey, the promoter started to introduce the products her company was selling. Another promoter then joined in.
Wendy reminded both of them that she was in a hurry, so they gave her a coupon as a gift. The coupon was for an air fryer (or a similar appliance) and said that she could use points from her BonusLink / BCard / Visa / AMEX cards to redeem it. Because Wendy wasn’t sure how many points she had, the promoter offered to help her check.
Wendy handed over her HSBC credit card to check. While they “checked”, one of them took out a form and started filling it up even though Wendy never agreed to redeem anything. She heard SMSes coming in but didn’t check her phone because she was in a rush. They packed some of their products and asked her to take them with her. She refused and went up to the gym.
It was at the gym when she checked her messages to discover the two SMSes stating that two transactions of over RM 6,000 were just charged to her HSBC credit card!
She demanded that they cancel the two transactions. One of the guys at the stall took her HSBC card to try and cancel the transactions. Little did she know that he actually used it to swipe 3 more transactions on it!
The man claimed he couldn’t cancel the transactions, and with her gym class starting, Wendy decided to go up first. She told them she would be back to deal with them later.
After her gym class, Wendy called HSBC to discover that there were actually five transactions in total. Fortunately, HSBC automatically blocked the card after the third transaction of over RM 200 went through, saving her from the other two transactions of over RM 3,000.
The HSBC officer then gave her refund approval codes to void the transactions performed by the company handling the stall, and she went back to the stall to confront them. The lady who first approached her for the survey was no longer there. Instead, two men attended to her and started to claim that it was the fault of the new staff.
She got furious because these illegal charges to her card were performed by two different people at two different times. So she shouted and threatened to call the police, at which point, they agreed to help her void those transactions. She called the bank to verify that those transactions were cancelled. By the time her ordeal was over, the guys at the stall had already packed up their stuff and left.
Later, she found out from the next stall that such incidents have been happening at the same stall every day. Wendy has this golden piece of advice for everyone :
Do not give out your credit card unless you’re buying from a legitimate seller/ merchant.
We cannot agree more!
In the next page, we will reveal the company behind this incident.
Nothing in this world is free , just don’t be greedy !
You can check with ROS who the owners are, right? Please post their details here.
Not with the ROS, but with the SSM.