While online shopping is always convenient, we should be careful about who we buy our products from so we don’t fall victim to being sold items that were not as promised and low quality. Like in the incident below that was shared to WORLD OF BUZZ.
A netizen by the name of Muhammad Ammar Adzim recently took to Facebook to warn netizens against buying products from a 16-year-old boy who sells bootleg and insufficient PS4 goods on Carousell. Since the post went viral, several other victims have also come forward to claim that they too, were tricked by the teen. WORLD OF BUZZ reached out to Ammar and he shared his experience with us:
False Advertising
Ammar said he was advertised a different product when he first inquired about the PS4. “He tricked me in a deal where I bought his PS4 but it turned out to not be the same product that was advertised,” Ammar said that he was advertised an upgraded PS4 with 2TB storage, two original controllers and 30 games (2 physical, the others were digital) for the price of RM1,450. However, he received a 500GB PS4, two bootlegged controllers and 1 physical game only. The digital games weren’t even allowed full access!
“To make it worse, the other digital games are separated into many of his sharing accounts which he shares with I-don’t-know-who. This doesn’t give me a guarantee that the accounts he gave are safe, and that the passwords will change and I will get locked out of the account, thus making the games unplayable.”
However, when he brought up these issues with the 16-year-old, the teen argued, “I didn’t say [the online games were] full access”.
“What kind of seller would sell something that he shares with other people in which you will not have a full right to it although you have paid the full amount of money?” Ammar said that when he tried to ask for a refund, the kid tried to turn the situation against Ammar instead and accused the netizen of scamming him.
Lies & Manipulation
After the story went viral, Ammar posted an update saying that the boy was trying to twist the story to cover his image.
“He attached pictures of the 2TB storage of the PS4 which he took from I don’t know which PS4 and claiming that was what he gave me.” However, Ammar had picture receipts to defend himself.
Apparently, the boy created a different Carousell account by the name of ‘leongyujing’ to rate himself 5 stars on his main account, which he later admitted as seen in Ammar’s screenshots of their conversation. The account has since been suspended from Carousell.
More Than One Victim
When asked about whether other victims have contacted him, Ammar told WORLD OF BUZZ, “including me, it’s already 5 people he has tricked. Three of them involved being tricked into buying PS4s and 1 involving the PS4 controller.” The boy allegedly sold a bootleg controller to the victim and disappeared but quickly refunded him as soon as the victim’s post exposing him went viral.
“Another victim was tricked to buy a PS4 game account that the boy sold but its not his own account. Now the actual owner of the account changed the password everyone he gave the account to is locked out of it and can’t play the games anymore.”
Don’t Be Too Trusting
Ammar said he tried to report the case to the police but was told by authorities that, what the boy is doing is not classified as a scam but rather the sale of ‘reduced quality items.’ “I guess that’s why he believed that he could get away with this.”
We asked Ammar if he had any advice for netizens so they don’t fall victim to such trickery. “My advice would be to not be so trusting. Doesn’t matter who they are. My mistake was I trusted him when he sent me videos of the console prior to the meet up because he said his mother wouldn’t let strangers come over to his house. The games and everything was present in the videos but when I received it, it was a totally different story.”
Ammar added that insisting on face-to-face meet up isn’t enough: “even though I took the precaution of meeting up face-to-face rather than postage (instant red flag if it costs a lot of money,) I got scammed for trusting him.”
“So I would advise, before buying anything, regardless of whether it is 1st or secondhand, make sure to test it out and make sure everything works well following the deal you chose before taking it back home.”
Ammar added that getting the seller’s full name, IC number and taking pictures for receipts was an added bonus: “take a picture of yourself (the buyer) and the seller together, and if you gave the money by cash, take a picture of you giving the money to him. This is crucial as it’s part of the syndicate to give money by hand as it will be proof that the deal took place.”
As of now, Ammar says the boy is still active and has been using a different Facebook account to sell PS4s. While the boy previously posted on Facebook in an attempt to clear his name, a recent search revealed that the post has since been taken down. Ammar saved a screenshot of it below:
Always be wary of where you buy your products! Stay safe, guys.
Also read: M’sian Applies For Job On Facebook But Gets Blackmailed By Scammer Using Her Personal Info
