KUALA LUMPUR: Diamonds are a girl’s best friend – but only if they’re the real deal, as more people have discovered.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said 23 new victims had come forward following his revelation on Thursday that 30 women ended up with lab-grown diamonds instead of the real thing.
“The 23 people have accumulated losses of RM156,372. So that makes the total losses around RM1.1mil now,” he told reporters yesterday.
Chong also maintained that the comments made against seller – who is a social media influencer – were based on facts.
His remarks were in reference to a Chinese newspaper report quoting the influencer as saying that she had never claimed to have sold natural diamonds.
She also maintained that she did not intentionally mislead her customers and that lab-grown diamonds are not fake.
However, Chong said the matter that was raised during his press conference on Thursday was done only after getting all the facts in order, adding that police reports had been lodged.
Lawyer Esther Hor, who represented the victims, said that a class action lawsuit is possible.
The main issue was the definition used when the person sold the diamonds, she said.
She claimed that the seller had used vague terminology in dealing with the buyers.
