It is believed that over 7,000 people have fallen for a scam that used the faces and names of Malaysian international celebrities, including Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Michelle Yeoh, Ronny Chieng, Melvin Sia and Lenna Lim, as endorsers to attract potential victims.
According to a report by China Press, the alleged scammers apparently impersonated a TV station and set up a scam where people can purchase membership packages to watch and rate movie trailers and garner commissions.
It is understood that the alleged scammers set up multiple packages, with the lowest being RM160 and the higher ones exceeding RM10,000. The higher the package a victim purchases, the higher the commission is promised when a victim watches and rates movie trailers.
For instance, a victim with an RM2,200 membership package can watch up to 20 movie trailers per day and earn a commission of RM80.
Once a victim makes the payment for a package, the alleged scammers will disappear with the money.
Some received their commissions
In order to make the scam seem real, the alleged scammers apparently transferred commissions to some victims in an orderly fashion in the first month, and then their platform’s system would “crash” and stop functioning in the second month.
Following this, the alleged scammers announced a “solution” in a WhatsApp group with more than 7,000 members, instigating them to pay an RM750 “activation fee”. Those who paid the “activation fee” were then asked to pay another fee for “income tax purposes”.
One of the victims
Many of the victims are said to be elderly, retired community members.
One victim, who had purchased an RM160 package and earned RM100 back in commissions before discovering he had been scammed, explained that he had also persuaded 8 to 10 friends to join the bandwagon.
“Now, they believe they have been cheated because of the losses and have accused me of being a con man, but in fact, I am also a victim,” he said, adding that his friends even threatened to beat him up.
The 74-year-old victim also admitted that he had consulted his children about the ‘packages’ and that they had dissuaded him from joining. However, he insisted on doing his own thing and ended up falling for the scam.
He has since reported the scam to the police.
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