Lucky Draw Scam

I was one of those lucky persons who won a prize on lucky draw event organized by some China company (Taiwan included) based in Hong Kong. Before that I call to make a survey on mobile phone usage was conducted and a gift was promised to be sent to me with a reference number of AK3328. I was told that I had won the fourth prize of USD50,000 and would get it transfered to my bank account after about an hour after the lady submit to the supervisor. Later the supervisor called to say that as it was too late on Friday afternoon, the fund would be transferred on Monday.

I was overjoyed with that information. I was then 50,000 richer. I was planning what to do with that money. To buy a new TV set, a new set of furniture, new curtain... I was thinking to myself that I had been too mean to myself, keep buying second hand gadgets from yahoo auctions and ebay. Buy outdated Nokia N770 instead of N800, always wait at least one year later to buy those gadgets, so that those gadgets were much cheaper and effordable. Selling them off later in order to use the money to buy new toys. So the next day I went to Sitex 2007 and got myself a new ASUS EEE PC.

After more than a week of waiting, checking my bank account every moment, there was no increase in the amount. I thought it might be a scam and decided to forget about it. Then the lady called, asking why I did not call her since I did not get the money. I told her that since this was the prize I won, I was not in a hurry to get it. She told me that now they have an office in KL and invited me to go visit their office in KL. Menara Telekom, Tingkat 18, Bilik 10, Jln Pantai Baru 50672 KL, Tel +603 86590170. Later, the supervisor called and told me that due to the regulation of preventing money laundering, for fund transfer of more than certain amount, we needed to pay a deposit of 10% and each party pay 5% and it would be refunded to me after that. That amount would be S$3600 plus S$50 for the admin work. I told her that at this time of the year, I was very tight and would like to see whether they could give me a grace period when the situation got better before I transfer the money. She told me that she would discuss with her manager and got back to me later.

I told my colleague about it. She told me that this was a scam and sent me a few web links, one of which is kennysia's blog. I listened to the recording done by him, it sound very similar to that of the supervisor. So I decided to stop hoping for the prize.

The lady called again, I told her that since I did not have money to transfer to them in order to get the prize, I would like to donate the money for charity. She told me that even for that I would have to transfer the money for them to arrange for donation. I told her I gave up because I was afraid of being cheated. She then started to say that you could give up the money because of suspicion but could not defame them. I told her that I did not and put down the phone.

The supervisor called, I told her that the bank told me not to proceed as this is likely to be scam. She said that was attitude problem of the bank staff, they should not be telling me that. I told her that recently our local newspaper was reporting on such cases and terminate the call.
They did not call me any more.

The effect of the event was that I got to feel rich and happy for a few days. Also spend more money as a result of that. It is difficult to achieve that otherwise.