Don't think this sounds too unfamiliar to you guys if you all have been keeping tabs on kennysia's blog.
Some China woman called me on my mobile 2-3 weeks ago, when i went to play badminton with sy and sh. That china woman told that she's calling from Hong Kong Disneyland, and she asked whether i'm free for their annual dinner or not. Thinking that this call might be another one of those insurance or MLM companies, i simply gave her a lame excuse to reject her. Then after that she told me for a global promotional event, they are giving away a trip to HK Disneyland for 2 to lucky participants in Singapore, Malaysia, and other Chinese populated countries. And yeah, I'm one of the lucky ones~
WOW!!
I gave her my name and add... (in chinese, but the strange thing is they didn't ask me how to write my add in Chinese*. Hmmm...seems like they know how to write my add in Chinese, when i don't even know!) They told me that within 1 week i'll be able to receive it.
(*There's this small part... I told my name in Chinese.. and she laughed and told her colleague in the background that she couldn't continue. I was so offended kay!! So another colleague took over, also with China-accent. Strange... i thought, why hk disney people hv no hk accent at all?? or they cutting cost? But for such a big corporation, don't need to bah... Was a little strange, but i let it pass..)
Shiok!!
Then i asked her, how they got my number... She told me they got it through one of their 200+ sponsors, either from travel agencies or some other lucky draws.
And additionally, they also told me that, as i would not be able to attend the annual dinner or watever shit 晚会, I also would not be able to be present during their grand lucky draw. They gave me a lucky draw no. B168749, and told me to watch the Phoenix Channel (I think, cos i can't really remember what she told me.. She spoke so bloody quick in fluent mandarin..) on Sunday 7pm, and take note of the right hand corner in case my no. would flash and i would win the draw~!!
Since i couldn't remember what channel she said, and i'm also never lucky in such draws so i don't bother watching. Meanwhile i waited... for the tickets to be sent to my place... 1 week later and still no news.
Soon after i totally forgot about the call...
Then last week, coincidentally it was a badminton day with sy again.. I received another call from this HK Disneyland company again...
She first asked me, why i haven't attended the annual dinner... I told her i'm not free.
Then she asked, have i watched the donno-what channel.. I told her no, cos i din catch the channel the other time. She repeated the Channel name again, she said it's a channel which all Chinese people will watch globally... (Wa...she sounds as if all chinese people would suscribe to SCV sia...)
She later told me that it's a pity cos actually i've won the ThirD PRIZE in their annual Lucky Draw!! She verified my lucky draw number B168749, and told me that i've won a Benz CAr~!!! Woohooo~!!!
Happily i gave her my address (in English this time, cos i don't trust them to be able to send correctly to my place if they wrote in mandarin... I mean in singapore, who sends letters in mandarin address??)
She gave me many specific details, like when i receive my cheque i have to bank in that cheque and immediately inform them. She even gave me a hongkong number.. 00852-66312482 to call her if there are any enquiries or doubts. Name is Wang Shu Tian. She kept assuring me that I'm really a very lucky person cos not everyone can win such a huge prize. Probably cos i didn't sound too excited all these while cos i'm busy crossing the road with sy..She checked and re-checked my address quite a few times, told me again and again that once i get the cheque i have to report to her cos she can't afford to take responsibility if the cheque is misplaced. She ended the call, telling me that she'll then inform the lawyer to go ahead with the procedure and reminded me to give her a treat when i attend the press conference in hk.
She sounded so genuine that i half-believed her... And if i really win, I would win a huge sum of money man~~
The next day, I went online to check up the HK Disneyland.. Cos the more i think about it, the more suspicious it is.. I search with all kinds of keywords: HK disneyland, lucky draw, annual dinner... But I didn't manage to find it. Perhaps they don't want to publicize it yet before the draw? Still, the nagging thought... I finally google-ed in HK disneyland lucky draw scam and you know what... There are at least 3 accounts of such cases~~!! All similar to my case!!! Damn... tMDs, WTH!!!!!!! How dare they use names like HK Disneyland and phoenix tv lor!!
Apparently Kennysia, got cheated too last year... His account of it was super funny. Now that i recall, i think sy or kl also only mention this to me only recently~!!! So qiao lor... You guys can have a good laugh here.
References:
http://www.hktourismboard.com/seasia/images/misrep.pdf
http://hk.dbs.com/en/consumer/automatedbankingservices/internet/ecb_alert/
and Story accounts:
http://eway-mylife.blogspot.com/2007/10/hong-kong-lucky-draw-fraud.html
http://alvinx.multiply.com/links/item/9
http://www.singaporebikes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151843
http://ericyeow.net/blog/9
http://joshuatj.blogs.friendster.com/i_am/2008/02/hongkong_lucky_.html
http://from-this-moment.blogspot.com/2007/11/hong-kong-lucky-draw-scam.html
http://www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/be-careful-of-lucky-draw-scam-from-china
http://talkback.stomp.com.sg/forums/archive/index.php/t-23642.html
http://forums.keeptouch.net/showthread.php?p=1930552
And reading all their accounts, i realised that i'm only in Step 2 of these scammers' plot. There is a step 3 and the most crucial step... To ask for a 5% insurance money before they could transmit my prize to me... Which usually is about $2-3k... Stupid A**-h***s!!
I've a good mind to do the same the next time they call me man... Hai me so happy for 1 day for nothing!! Damn! Hai me think so much of wat to do with the money when i've gotten it. WTH! Hai me almost buy my last 4 numbers of my hp no. cos i tink it's a lucky no. In fact, i think this is one of their plots as well... putting your last 4 digits of your hp no. as your lucky draw number. DAmN TMD!!! Cheat my feelings maan!! =(
Which reminds me... how did they get my number in the first place?? I only got my number like 3 months ago, and i didn't give away my new number to many strangers in these 3 months... I came up with a few possibilities...
1) They found my number in the YahooAuctions, Jobstreet, JobsDB..
2) They got my number through lucky draw forms (which i remember only the KBox luckydraw)
3) The companies which I applied jobs to sold my number to these scammer companies... Or the 'job companies' are the scammers in the first place. Besides govt jobs (which i have no doubts at all that they won't leak any confidential info to outsiders), i applied to 2-3 jobs under jobstreet.com which now i think it looks kinda dubious.
4) I seldom give away my number to any surveys, esp what looks like insurance or MLM surveys. The only one i can remember is the bank survey during careerfair asking us to be insurance agents.
5) The travel agency (when i went to Genting) sold my number to them.
But i believe the most likely ones are point 1) or 3). Cos i realised that most people who kena are in their 20s to 30s... most of them are most probably jobseekers, so through resumes or application forms, they get our numbers... WTH...
Or if it's point 2) and 5), they went through the list and filter out the target group... which sounds less plausible.. But it still could happen.
I hope these bloody scammers would get to enjoy their free meal behind the bars soon~
Meanwhile let's spread the word around so these Cheena moneysuckers won't get their way!!
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25 comments:
Hey, how many 3rd prizes have they got ?
I thought I'm the winner of the 3rd prize... dunno what car it is, but its suppose to be worth HK$486,000 (S$86,700)!!!
Ha ha ha ... thx for the post.
Dunno if the police is looking into these scams... hope they can do something about it.
haha... so's mine man.. they said i won about HK$480,000~ If i'm not wrong you shd hv heard you won a car of brand "Peng Zi" (Benz).
YEah reali hope they do sth abt it b4 someone falls for it. In fact i almost did~!! =S
hi! there:
Just to echo to the post i too receive the same phone call, same event, same channel, same amount of $$, same procedure. This time even give me a law firm no. to call. They claim they are holding the cheque because i am not local and apparently have to pay the tax. They also stated there's another guy with similar condition and had the $$ transferred after he prepared the tax money and send it over.
So i was like; another guy who won the third prize? And after he told me i have to send the tax money over first my fence was up so i simply search the keyword: Hong Kong Disney Scam. And here i am!
Initially during the 2nd call i already have this thought: If they ask me for bank account something will be wrong.
Well they just have to realise not all are greedy to the extend of stupid lor~ also, all their call comes in as 'private'. Dun think a big organisation like Disney will shy away in displaying their name la~
To add on...I just received a call during lunch today. Same thing...sounded so convincing also. Find it so fishy..hence did a google check and here i am.. Lucky i only gave them my name and address.. Will definately tell her off if she start asking me for my account number. Still thot I so lucky...won over S$80k...
They just gave me the second call (stage 2) to my Singapore mobile phone number. Exactly the same story. They are so well rehearsed....
i just got the second call! LOL
did a check online and came up with SCAM!!!! anyway, they said they will post me a lawyer's letter informing me of the prize claim procedure.
how do we stop them?
can we report now? or must wait til some other ppl get cheated????
hi! summer:
They won't post you a letter, they'll call you again and act surprised that you didn't received anything, and after that follow up with the excuses that because you are not Hong Konger, they can't send you the price money.
I wish to pin them down. Can you try this? They'll later tell you you'll need to pay the charity tax in order to receive the money (stupid excuse, no one pay tax before receive $$). Just pretend you agree to pay and ask for their account number. See how they answer. With the account number and name, we might be able to report them.
Btw which organisation's name they use this time?
I just received a 3rd call from them. The lady told me that I should have received the cheque sent to my Singapore mailing address. She then acted very surprised and puzzled why I didn't receive the cheque. She 'advised' me to call their lawyer office number at +852 6527 3574. Shen mentioned that I can contact her at +852 6552 1509. Her 'acting skills' is very good. Her Mandarin slang do not sound like a Hong Kong person, more like someone from Taiwan or China
yeah~ the exact same procedure!! And they still dare to act very surprised and ask me not to joke with her. Gave me the lawyer's number and i almost called! Luckily i didn't suscribe to IDD, so cannot make any overseas calls... But in total i received like 4-5 calls already.. And each lasted about half an hour or so. Think they must have spent lots of $$ jus to call me~
To Tan:
Hi i tink last year there're similar cases and the police have already tried tracking their account and phone numbers, but to no avail. They are really smart and tight-lipped about their orgn. You all might wanna watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx02IPIkaNY
Uh huh. I was also given the details of the TV show to watch on 22 October, the telephone number of a lawyer's office and later, 'secretly', the number of a fellow 3rd prize winner in Malaysia to ask how he collected the prize money.
I kept waiting for them to ask for my bank account details and make a cash deposit, but it seems that they are working smarter these days.
you all lose lah!!! they called me and said my third prize is a BMW 330i worth HK530K which turn out to be about S$106k. The lady also asked me to watch 亚洲电视台。she also told me my cheque will be arriving this Fri. Hmm.... I shall know what to do commorades! Wait for my good news!!!!
I've got the same calls. Very suspicious indeed, and I realised that the previous posts were from 2008, so they are still using the same scam a year later.
Hi,
One more victim to add to the comment list. i just answered the 2nd call and had entertained both calls. Now. i shall ignore the 3rd, 4th ... calls. The scammers are still around!!!!
Ha ha.. i also got the same call and answered both calls.
same as mine and the call did not show caller id..
utill final stage...they request me to call lawyer firm to verify..and i refuse to call the lawyer and tell them is they mistake so they so settle it for me..haha...
so, they replied me said that the prize belong to you and you should call the lawyer and they are not responsible if you not receive the cheque and they only co-ordinated only. So,professional !
I'm waiting them to call me again.
hahaha
lukcy i found tis post...
i found the scam sounds quite real, cos nv ask for $$....
but now i realise i haven't reach that stage yet...
anyway, thx for sharing
wow... aft so long they r still using the same old tricks? they crazy or wat? or they dun use computers? everyone alr know it's a scam...
ha! i just received the 2nd phone call stating that i won the 3rd prize.. 66k hkd.. doh.. asking me to wait for the check which will be send by DHL and blah.. but glad to see this blog post cos they made it seem so real.. hoo.. but can the police do something about this? juz have a unit for this kind of phone scam.. anyway thanks for this post.. great help!
hey guys i just recieved a third call. same thing there, well this is really annoying, the woman sounds really mean it......i said that i have recieved nothing so far, then she gave me this lawyer's number called 言律师Or something.
hihi,
i also just received the 2nd call saying that i won the 3rd prize HKD$66k.
hahaha...
same thing..will send cheque by DHL.
Then i'm supposed to call the girl back.
So wat do i expect next??
Anyway there's no way i'll pay any $$$ to them!
hey, i think it is better to let the media know about this, then can they warn the public. I just recieved the call again!! and i scolded the woman somehow....you guys may think of reporting to the police, maybe?
Oh man, I won HK66,0000!!! Her name is Huang Pei Shan and contactable at 852-53975051. I know it was all suspicious. When I asked her to send me information on my prize, she gave excuse that the phone call is the only notification.
Does anyone knows where we can report this? Don;t tell me 3 years already no one report??
haha same thing here huang peishan is the same no. u can call the police, it was in the news last week and stated this was a scam and 3 singaporeans already kena cheated!
thanks for sharing ppl.
I've got a similar case.. make it identical as well. Questioned them about them how on earth did I get the number? 200 plus sponsor, too difficult to name all of them, the lady says.
Well, caller's name is "Chuo Hui Wen" Caller number is 85253575012.
No mention of transfer of money as yet, waiting for this as a trigger word.
Dex
Mar 25, 2010
Beware that 'lucky' call
One S'porean victim of scam paid $11,000 to claim non-existent prize
By Sujin Thomas
THREE Singaporeans fell victim recently to a telephone scam by tricksters claiming to be from Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
In the ruse, which first surfaced a few years ago, they were told they had won various prizes, but had to pay to claim them.
Police said victims lost between $3,700 and $11,000 this time. The first victim, who lost $11,000, lodged a police report on March 19.
All three had received calls informing them that they had won prizes such as free tickets, cash awards and even motor vehicles through lucky draws or events allegedly organised by the resort.
The catch, as with most such scams, was that the 'winners' had to hand over cash before they could claim their prizes.
In a media statement dated March 12, a Hong Kong Disneyland spokesman said: 'The resort states that it has not authorised any parties, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, to approach the public in this manner.'
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