Lonely Hearts Club

Satu lagi MO yang sering diguna untuk memperdaya wanita Malaysia yang kesepian ialah mengumpan mereka membawa dadah [mules]. Utusan hari menyiarkan berita ini [klik di sini].

I am wondering can't anything further be done apart from reporting the done cases. I suspect I am being targeted by this people/syndicate. I am getting hits on SKYPE and YM from people who claimed they are British or American. After one or two short chats, they were offering marriage to me. Almost all are willing to convert to Islam and relocate here. Some are engineers, one is an oil contractor, another an independent contactor, another in the Security business. Some were bold enough to talk to me on the phone. None would allow me to see them live on webcam.

Wanita Malaysia semakin berhati-hati

IPOH 6 Ogos - Golongan wanita di negara ini kini semakin berhati-hati ketika berurusan dengan warga asing bagi mengelak daripada terperangkap dalam sindiket pengedaran dadah antarabangsa.

Ketua Pengarah Agensi Anti Dadah Kebangsaan (AADK), Datuk Abd. Bakir Zin berkata, ia terbukti apabila jumlah pengedar dadah di kalangan wanita tempatan di peringkat antarabangsa semakin berkurangan.

Bagaimanapun kata beliau, kerajaan perlu memperhebatkan usaha untuk membendung keberanian segelintir wanita di negara ini untuk menjadi pengedar dadah di peringkat antarabangsa.

"Secara keseluruhan, kaum wanita kini lebih faham dan berhati-hati dengan sesiapa sahaja kerana mereka sedar tentang bahaya jika diperdaya sindiket pengedaran dadah antarabangsa.

"Kita tidak mahu ada lagi wanita membawa beg orang lain (berisi dadah) dan kemudian apabila ditahan di negara orang, mereka beri alasan tidak tahu," katanya.

Beliau menyatakan demikian kepada pemberita selepas majlis pelancaran Masyarakat Wanita Anti Dadah (Mawadah) Perak oleh Menteri Besar Perak, Datuk Seri Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadi.

Dalam perkembangan berkaitan, beliau berkata, jumlah penagih yang dikesan di negara ini tahun lalu adalah 12,352 orang iaitu 5,939 penagih baru dan 6,413 penagih berulang.

Jelasnya, perangkaan tersebut menunjukkan seramai 514 rakyat Malaysia terjebak sebagai penagih baru dalam sebulan atau seramai 17 orang dalam sehari manakala jumlah penagih berulang dalam sebulan adalah seramai 556 orang atau 19 orang sehari.

"Di Perak sendiri, sehingga Jun ini, seramai 3,365 orang penagih dadah dikesan manakala bilangan penagih wanita adalah seramai 71 orang atau dua peratus.

"Statistik Malaysia menunjukkan golongan wanita yang terlibat dalam kancah penagihan dadah hanya 263 orang sepanjang 2008 dan terdapat satu Pusat Serenti Wanita (Puspen) di Bachok, Kelantan," katanya.

Internet Love Scams

Just for the record I am copying the report from Star Online 5 August 2009 here before following up with my own later.

Wednesday August 5, 2009

Falling for Internet love scam

KUALA LUMPUR: She fell in love with a British man over the Internet and ended up losing RM20,000.

Y.K. Lam of Ampang became friendly with the man after chatting with him for two months via a certain website.

He even sent her his photograph and his family’s.

The two decided to get engaged. Lam claimed that the man said he would be sending over a parcel of presents from Britain, including an engagement ring, a gold wrist watch, a gold necklace for her and her mother, a camera handphone and some clothes.

“I was also to receive £10,000 (RM59,207), a laptop and a rose as a token of our love,” she told a press conference at the MCA Complaints and Public Services Department yesterday.

All she needed to do was pay the courier service fee of RM16,379.29. She did this by banking in the amount at a bank in Taman Putra.

On July 29, she received a call from a woman introducing herself as a Customs officer named Mary, requesting her to transfer another RM3,500 into a bank account to redeem the parcel. Again, Lam complied.

The next day, she again received a call from Mary, claiming that her British boyfriend, Raymond, had been detained in the police lock-up after arriving here to meet her.

She was told to pay RM3,000 to release Raymond and obtain the parcel.

She sensed something amiss with the whole episode and decided to lodge a police report on July 31.

Department head Datuk Michael Chong said seven other women had fallen victim to such Internet love scam, with total losses of RM383,371 last year.

This year, he had received cases of five women and two men who had been victimised and with a total loss of RM186,118.

“To make matters worse, two women were also lured to have sex with the conmen,” he added.

Chong said it was usually lonely individuals seeking for companionship that fell victims to such scams.