MANY consumers fear being cheated by vendors and businesses online, making them reluctant to use online platforms for payment, shopping, or delivery, even if these are convenient.
But how do vendors or business owners verify the real orders from the fake ones?
Was a local catering service platform recently scammed of a 500-pax order for an event?
Verdict:
TRUE
Local social enterprise PichaEats says it fell victim to a prank/scam food order for an event involving 500 people.
The local food catering and delivery platform claimed to have received an urgent order for the event from "Universiti Malaya (UM)" on Wednesday (June 5).
The event was supposed to take place on Friday (June 7) and the customer claimed it was urgent because the original caterer pulled out at the last minute.
In an Instagram post of the order form bearing the UM logo, PichaEats said: "We signed all the documents and proceeded with the order."
It was discovered later that the entire order was a scam/prank and the document was a forgery.
PichaEats said 15 of its chefs were badly affected as they had bought all the ingredients to prepare meals for the large event.
It also issued an appeal to the public to help out by purchasing the prepared food in whatever quantities possible.
In a subsequent Instagram post, PichaEats said all the food had been sold and thanked the public for its support.
"Your continued support and understanding mean the world to us," it said.
It also said a police report had been lodged on the fake order.
