4 Sep
i was alone in canteen b when i received a call from an unknown number. answered a short phone survey n that's it.
5 Sep
received another call from "the" unknown number, apparently. caller said that they had a lucky draw in JB n i've won a prize. i told them to give the prize to another person coz i can't go n collect the prize (n had no intention to, anyway)
6 Sep
received another call from the "company", saying that the prize i won is a cash prize of $180,000. caller explained that the lucky draw held the day before is part of a pubicity stint made to boost the reputation of Hewlett Packard (did i get the spelling right?) in singapore and malaysia, coz they intend to expand their business in these 2 countries. they asked for my basic particulars n i answered them, thinking that they won't be able to do much with just those info anw. at the end of the call, they left a number for me, saying that it's the number of their company. after putting down the phone, i tried dialling the number and found that its not registered. i panicked and rushed out of the house to the nearest atm to withdraw as much money as possible from my bank account and transferred the money to another bank(just in case). as i was doing this, the caller called again. i asked a lot of questions and asked for their email add. the person said they don't have one. then she told me that coz the prize money is so much, so there has to be a lawyer present when they transfer the money to me, and i am supposed to pay a sum of $5600 for the lawyer. i told them that i'm only a student and don't have that much money, and the person said that i could just pay half first. i told them i'll call them back after i borrowed enough money. (anyway, i pissed the caller off pretty seriously. imagine having to talk to an obviously skeptical person for half an hour.)
i went to the police station immediately. they told me that there has been many similar cases recently, with some callers claiming they are from hongkong disneyland even.
i was damn pissed after i stepped out of the police station that the random words appearing in my mind all comes from 1 category - swear words (yes, including and especially vulgarities. no, i would not post them here). imagine how many gullible persons have fallen prey to these conmen and have their hard-earned money robbed from them just like that! conmen are really the basest and most despicable creatures who ought to be made to swallow all the money they got through their scams. the best part is, they can choke themselves to death this way.
anw, their scam isn't so perfect afterall. loopholes galore:
1) ya right, i win a big prize in a lucky draw the day after i answer a survey.
2) and the draw is held at somewhere obviously inconvenient for me to visit.
3) HP employees don't have email accounts. and they can't give me the email add of their IT/ customer service department. (what the hell.)
4) and the icing on the cake is: i have to pay first before receiving the prize. (WHAT THE HELL.)
one doesn't need a MENSA mind to filter these loopholes from the they-think-it's-perfectly-fabricated story. for the people who got conned, i sympathize with them, but they're too trusting/greedy for their own good.
a few years back i could have bought the story wholesale (ya, what an idiot). but perhaps as people grow older, we start to lose trust in others. in certain cases, this may actually be advantageous. but, will we keep building walls between ourselves and "the others", and end up "living life alone"?
anw, i believe there is no solution to this oxymoron.
welcome to the real world.
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