Shandy scammers targeting thirsty Sibu folk

SIBU: Scammers are taking advantage of limited stocks of shandy (a light alcoholic beverage) here to cheat people with two people already falling victim.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday (Jan 22) at the Aspirasi service centre here, a 46-year old housewife claimed she had lost a total of RM2,400 to the scammers while her nephew's friend in Sarikei had also been conned out of RM750.

The woman, who wished to be known only as Lau, said that because there was no stock of the beverage here, she was attracted to buy it from the suspect after seeing an advertisement on social media.

"On Jan 18, I saw an advertisement on social media and contacted the 'seller' via private message. He then gave me his phone number," she said.

Lau was told that the "seller's" price was cheaper than the market price, at between RM36 to RM39 per carton compared to RM46 on the market.

"He promised that I would receive the drink by Jan 24 and also that he would send me a tracking number. After agreeing to this, I transferred RM700 to the bank account number I was given," she said.

According to her, the seller had asked if anyone else was interested and she used RM1,700 of her own money to pay for the purchase of her friend.

"When I asked him for the tracking number, he gave an excuse saying that his worker had forgotten to take a picture of the number as they had many customers to attend to. He told me not to worry as the drinks would arrive at my place on Jan 24," she said.

She realised that she had been cheated at about 9.30pm the same day as the man had blocked her on social media and his phone was also not reachable.

Lau lodged a police report on the same day.

Meanwhile, Deputy Aspirasi chairman Simon Tiong advised the public to be extra careful when buying things online.

"Make sure you know the seller. If they are total strangers, don't deal with them," he advised.

Tiong said he would be writing to the police on Sunday (Jan 23) on the outcome of their investigation.

He also urged the public to make a police report if they feel that they were victims of scams.