PETALING JAYA: A 45-year-old housewife who hired a cleaning service through an online advertisement to reduce the burden of juggling her studies and managing her household became the victim of a scam and lost her entire savings of RM20,000.
The housewife from Iskandar Puteri, in Johor, who wanted to be known only as Baljeet Kaur, told theSun that on Saturday, she had responded to an advertisement on Facebook as she searched for a cleaning company online to tidy up her house.
Baljeet who is pursuing her Master’s degree said she was contacted by a man who agreed to send two maids for two hours at a fee of RM40.
Soon after, she received a text message from the man with a link and instructions to download an application and pay a one-time registration fee of RM20.
“I initially hesitated to go through the process and told him that I would make the payment in person when the maids showed up. However, he insisted I pay just the registration fee and he would collect the cleaning fee in person,” she said.
Baljeet said she downloaded the application called MyshopXZ and filled up a form with her particulars before she was taken to a page where she was required to reveal her online banking details to pay the registration fee.
She said after doing so, a message stating the transaction was unsuccessful popped up. “I contacted the man and he told me that the bank’s website was probably out of order and suggested I use another bank.
“Fortunately, I did not do so. Several…
