There are probably countless cases of scams that are ongoing daily in the country and we have no idea about them.
In a post that has gone viral on Facebook, a teacher has shared how her mother was scammed of RM600 by a stranger.
In the original post, Nor Zaina Zanariah said that at about 2pm on 14 April, a man wearing a TNB uniform and riding a motorcycle arrived at the doorstep of her home in Perak. At that time, only her mother was at home.
The man asked to check the meter in front and wanted to know the serial number of their gas cylinder. He gave an excuse about a gas cylinder exploding in a house in the next village and asked if he can enter the house to check the serial number.
“My mother opened the door for him immediately as if she was in a trance.”
He immediately went into the kitchen and asked for a knife. After receiving the knife, he asked the old woman to take the pan away. Nor Zaina suspects that it is at this time that the man used the knife to cut the gas pipe open.
“He told my mother that the pipe was broken and he replaced it with a new one without permission. Then he asked my mother to give him RM600 for the service and my mum paid him without thinking.”
The teacher added that the man asked her mother to sign the receipt but after that, he took the receipt away.
After he left, Nor Zaina’s mother only realised that the price was too expensive and they had just replaced the gas pipe the month before. She called a relative who works in TNB to ask if they offer this service and she said no. It was then that she realised what had happened.
In the post, many netizens shared similar experiences with this kind of scam.
“My neighbour was also scammed like this. They asked for RM700 but thankfully they gave them only RM100.”
“My mother was almost a victim of this scam but fortunately I arrived just in time. They changed the gas head and I asked them to give me the old one back as I had just replaced it a month ago. They said that they can’t take it out after putting it in so I took it out and threw it out of the house.”
“It happened once at the Orang Asli kampung too. They came straight into the house and went to the gas cylinder, after looking, they said that it’s dangerous and changed it, then they asked for RM400.”
Speaking to WORLD OF BUZZ, Nor Zaina said that she still hasn’t lodged a police report as her mother is too frail to go to the police station and she was too busy.
She also urged other Malaysians to be careful and not allow any stranger to go into the house.
This is certainly very concerning. Be sure to warn your loved ones of this scam so that they will not fall victim to it.
Also read: “There’s a green sticker” – M’sian Warns Others To Look Out For Abnormalities On Their Mailboxes