KUALA LUMPUR: What began as a RM1,000 online loan turned into a RM16,800 ordeal for a 19-year-old student after he and his family were repeatedly pressured to make additional payments by alleged scammers.
MCA Youth deputy chief Mike Chong Yew Chuan said the student, identified only as Yap, applied for the loan in May after seeing an advertisement on social media.
Yap, who intended to use the money for online trading, said he was approved for a RM1,000 loan but received only RM700.
Before the loan was approved, he was allegedly required to submit extensive personal information, including photographs of his identity card, home address, emergency contacts and social media accounts.
After repaying the loan in full, Yap claimed he was told to pay an additional RM8,000 as a “settlement fee” to remove his details from the lender’s system.
Believing the demand was unreasonable, he lodged a police report.
However, the lender allegedly contacted Yap’s family the next day and appeared to know details of the report, including when it was lodged and that Yap had gone to the police station alone.
“The scammer told my parents that because I had made a police report, the company’s bank accounts had been frozen and we needed to pay compensation,” he said at a press conference yesterday.
Fearing harassment, the family then allegedly paid a total of RM16,800 in compensation but the demands did not stop there.
Yap said an individual later contacted his parents, alleging he had been paid RM1,000 by the lender to “work” against the family and demanded RM3,000 to stop.
When the family requested the bank account details, they discovered it matched the account previously used by the lender.
“This made us suspect they were working together to scam more money,” Yap said, adding that another person later emerged claiming to be the lender’s boss and demanded an additional RM12,000.
The family eventually sought help from MCA Youth after receiving threatening messages and photographs, accompanied by warnings that paint or petrol bombs could be thrown if payments were not made.
