KUALA LUMPUR: The MCA Public Services and Complaints Department has warned the public to be cautious when making purchases online.
Its chief Datuk Seri Michael Chong (pic) said his department has received more than 10 cases last year where customers were cheated.
"The victims lost a total of RM245,000. I have been told by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department that the number of such cases is much higher.
"Most of the time, buyers were duped through social media. They make payments but products were never delivered.
"A number of our cases last year involved the purchase of mobile phones and concert tickets," he said.
The latest victim was a 26-year-old consultant, known as Lim, who tried to buy tickets for a Jacky Cheung concert.
“On Dec 15, my sister told me about a message she received via Facebook from a guy named Adam claiming to sell tickets.
“She passed me his phone number and I contacted him via Whatsapp. Initially, he said the tickets were RM550 each but he would sell me four tickets for only RM500 each,” she said when met at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department here on Tuesday.
She said she banked in a total of RM2,000 to the seller before he told her that one of the four tickets had been sold.
“He offered me better tickets which cost RM988 for only RM700 each instead, and I agreed and transferred the extra money to him.
“He promised to mail the tickets to me but I could not contact him at all after that.
“I lost RM2,800 to this conman,” she said, adding that she lodged a report at the Brickfields police station on Dec 20.
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