KUALA LUMPUR: A cleaner facing financial struggles after her husband suffered a stroke, has become a target of scammers who exploited her family’s situation for donations.
For months, pictures of Moo Lee Yoon and her family have circulated on social media, with an unknown group soliciting funds in their name.
Despite Moo filing four police reports, the posts remain online.
“As a result, many people, including my children’s friends, have criticised us for being scammers,” said the mother of six, aged between four and 21.
Feeling helpless, Moo sought help from MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong at Wisma MCA.
The 40-year-old said her husband Ng Choun Ying, 59, became paralysed following a stroke in 2022.
“I approached a non-governmental organisation in Kajang for help and its members uploaded a post on our plight on social media to seek donations,” she said.
She added that a foundation of a media organisation, which noticed her plight, stepped in to provide a RM2,500 monthly assistance for the family for three years.
“I have asked the organisation to remove the post and stop collecting funds,” she told a press conference yesterday.
However, she found out that other posts of her plight for help surfaced on social media again in June.
This time, they were uploaded by an unknown group without her authorisation.
Moo hopes the authorities take stern action and warns kind-hearted people to not be scammed by such tactics.
Chong said Moo’s case is not the first of its kind the department has received.
He said there are also scammers who called the public, claiming that a charity organisation needed a certain amount of money to hit its fundraising target.
“We hope the people will be wary of such tactics,” he said.
He urged the police and other authorities to take action as Moo and her family have been receiving flak due to the fake posts.
“We will write to the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission to remove the social media posts,” Chong said.
