Don’t Get Scammed with this SMS from SHELL!

Posted on 11. Nov, 2008 by Maya in Musings

I got this SMS this morning.

Something tells me it’s downright fishy.

It’s probably a scam for a few reasons.

I don’t buy petrol from Shell.

I don’t join SMS contests.

I am very skeptical of forwarded emails (especially those that begin with: Send this to 10 people and I get 3 cents for my daughter who is dying of leukemia, you get my point. It started with Bill Gates and we all wanted to fleece that poor nerd-CEO).

I am very skeptical of everything. Maybe it’s because I am a woman or that I am too bloody jaded for my own good. Women are tough when it comes to negotiating money and nitpicking (or what’s called looking at super tiny details). Please correct me if I am wrong.

OK, this SMS comes from this number: 014 374 9309. So beware.

“Shell Promosi”. Anda di Pilih dari Office SHELL tlh Berjaya Meraih Cabutan Hadiah “RM 17,000.00″. Sila dail di Talian 017 837 2718 Terima kasih.

First, let me nitpick.

The Bahasa is like crap.

If you want to scam someone, make sure you can type an SMS properly.

Don’t do it like you’re an illiterate. Unless you bloody well are. (Methinks the scammer is illiterate. Look at how he/she spells ‘di Pilih’ and suddenly it’s a truncated version of ‘telah’ with ‘tlh’).

The modus operandi is probably like this: If I were sillier (and didn’t use my brains), I would happily call the number.

Once I do that, the scammer knows I am hooked. I am a greedy pig. I want to know what I won. Maybe it’s RM17K.

So he/she will get me to deposit some money so I can claim my prize.

It’s not just this SMS.

Once I got a call from a Chinese-speaking woman. Thick accented Mandarin. Probably from China. I knew it was a scam the moment she asks, “Ni hui chiang huayi mah?” (Can you speak Mandarin?) If I were ruder, I’d say something crude in Mandarin that begins with “mah”.

The other type of scam is the credit card/call centre scam. Nic got a call which actually (audaciously) said that this was a bank call centre and wanted to verify his credit card details. Could he verify by saying his credit card number with CVC over the phone?!

Now, it’s normal to get calls from your bank. But one that asks for your credit card number and CVC? First time I ever heard of it.

Luckily Nic wasn’t that stupid. Something didn’t sound right. The guy on the other end sounded too slick, too polished. As if he did this every day. Which he probably does. Call and scam people easily because sometimes you just might forget and think it’s your bank calling up for verification purposes.

The other type of scams is the shopping mall-scam-old-uncles-and-aunties.

My Dad and Mom experienced this once when they were at a shopping mall a few years ago. It was the thing then to catch senior citizens and give them these scratch and win cards. Of course, once you scratch the card, you get this prize.

You are then dragged to the shop (usually electrical item shop selling vacuum cleaner, washing machine, etc) and then there’s this ‘drama’ where the shop employees start this song-and-dance and gush “Oh uncle, how lucky! You won this RM2000 voucher! Can get so many things in this shop for free.”

The problem is, most of the items in the shop are priced OVER RM2K. Either you fork out more money to buy some cheap China-made vacuum cleaner (which breaks down in 2 weeks) or you forfeit the voucher. Most uncles and aunties get pressured at the shop employees can be quite persuasive!

The thing is, many young people also get scammed, if the news reports in the papers are anything to go by. Executives in their 20s and 30s get scammed the hi-tech way - through phone and Internet.

I guess the only way to prevent this happening to you is this: keep Greed away.

If you’re not greedy, don’t care for such freebies, you’re safe.

You know what I am going to do? I am going to email Shell Malaysia and get them to look into this SMS scam. After all the scammers are using Shell to scam people!

UPDATE: I emailed the Shell Malaysia people after I wrote this post. They wrote back. This is what they said:

Thank you for your feedback. With regards to your enquiry below, the SMS received is not from Shell. That is a SCAM SMS going around saying that it is from Shell.

If you were to be a winner from Shell, we shall notify you through phone call and will not send any sms.

Hence, kindly ignore the sms and do not reply to them on any details. For further clarification, kindly call us at 1300 88 1808. Thank you.

Regards,
Shafeela
Shell Customer Service Centre

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6 Comments

Kate

12. Nov, 2008

Yes, you do just that. Send it to SHELL so that they are aware that their brand is being used in scamming. I too once had a hong kong/taiwan number calling me in the midst of a presentation, talking about having to attend to a court case and as if I have committed some fraud… I immediately put down the line and had I been upset caught in a situation like this, I would have given them a piece of my mind.. the not-so good type.. if you know what I meant. Then, I read in the papers that there is a modus operandi going round like what I have experienced. Some people just have too much time on their hands!

Maya

12. Nov, 2008

Yup. I did. I updated the blog post to include Shell Malaysia’s response. I think some people don’t want to work and want to rip people off. Think about it, it’s easy money. Call 100 people a day, maybe 10 will get hooked. Con the 10 people of 20K each and you don’t have to “work” for the next 29 days of the month. What I am often amazed is how many people, educated people mostly, get scammed! What did we all go to university for? Why can’t we put on our skeptic caps and think for a while? In Cantonese, we say, where got a frog jumping about on the road? For those not Cantonese, it means, hey brother, there ain’t no free lunch ok? Don’t be gullible!

cleffairy

17. Nov, 2008

LMAO… I’m always an unlucky lot in such things… winning stuff, I mean. I never even win a lotto or such contest even once in my entire life. You can call me a sore loser, Maya. I received not only from SHELL, but from Petronas before. I always knew that there’s no such thing as free lunch, what’s more, I never participated in such competition. I receove this kinda thing all the time. Once, I was such in a bad mood that I needed a place to vent, i called the number up, and… err…not that i am proud of it, but I swore some very vulgar words to the person on the end of the line… =.= Aww, come on… I think it’s a bit justified lah, cuz they did disturbed me. My life is hard enough as it is. i dun need such people to mock me by offering me some bloody money, which is a SCAM. *screams* and err… you actually did well… I swore in pretty languages that would make a sailor swims home to his mommy! LOL.

Jian

22. Nov, 2008

Wow…It was an email initially…now so hightech ady?

Maya

26. Nov, 2008

@ Jian: Yup, crooks are smarter than regular folks. I wish Shell took action. I mean, there’s a freaking phone number which they can report to the police if they wanted to. But I guess the crooks will change phone numbers anyway. BUT I thought that’s the reason why we’re all required to register with our IC when we sign up for mobile numbers right?

@ cleffairy: Haha, best not win this kind of stupid scam. But you probably scared them by venting. Maybe I should start screaming the next time some scammer calls me up. Would love to hear your sailor language! LOL.

Fazli

05. Jan, 2009

Saya menerima sms mesej dari nombor 0143592793, “SHELL PROMOSI” Anda di Pilihdari Office SHELL tlh Berjaya Meraih Cabutan Hadiah “RM19,000.00″ Sila dail di Talian 0178985994 Terima kasih. pada 3 Januari 2009 pagi sabtu jam 9.00pagi ketika itu saya berada dirumah dan keadaan hujan masa itu sangat lebat.

Dalam keadaan tanpa disedari saya menalipon nombor berkenaan, dan diberitahu saya telah memenangi hadiah tersebut shell bersama DiGi. Seorang lelaki yang dialectnya yang tidak fasih berbahasa Malaysia minta nombor akaun bank saya dan seterusnya minta saya pergi ke ATM mesin . Sebelum itu dia memohon pada saya nombor kad ATM sebelum kemana-mana ATM.

Saya jadi hairan dan tersangat bodoh pada ketika itu, kerana tersangat memerlukan wang kerana sehari sebelum itu kereta saya dicalar disemua bahagian badan kereta dengan teruk ketika saya meletakkan kereta saya dirumah saya dan memerlukan wang untuk mengecat kembali sebuah kereta.

Bila saya sedar yang dia meminta nombor kad ATM. Saya terus letak talipon dan saya kemudiannya menelefon pihak Digi untuk kepastian. Pihak Digi mengesahkan tiada sebarang promosi dengan shell.

Sekali lagi saya bertindak bodoh menelefon si sms dan berutahu yang saya baru buat panggilan pada pihak Digi dan dengan tidak semena-mena si sims tadi berang memaki hamun saya yang mengatakan saya menuduhnya sebagai penipu. Saya terus letak telefon dengan perasaan bingung dan bodoh. Seterusnya dalam keadaan hujan lebat saya keluar ke mesin ATM berdekatan dan menyemak dan tiada duit yang keluar dari akaun saya. Saya bersyukur dan bernasib baik kerana tidak memberi nombor kad ATM .

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