Scratch-And-Win Scams

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A news report said that syndicates operating scratch-and-win contests in Malaysia are reaping an annual profit of RM2 billion. 

Scratch-and-win syndicates have been operating in Malaysia for the last 15 years.

Despite numerous media reports, many Malaysians continue to fall prey to this scam. The victims are not only naive university students, housewives and civil servants, but also businessmen and professionals.

The syndicates, who have hundreds of agents and companies operating using direct selling licences, are making thousands of Ringgit a day through the scam.

Many have fallen victim to scratch-and-win syndicates as they were swayed by promises of free cars, holidays trips and other items.

Salesmen for this scam were located in shopping complexes, bus terminals, LRT stations, hypermarkets and outside banks to make contact with potential victims.

Potential victims who "won prizes" would be told to go to the salesman's office to redeem their prizes. At the office, the victims would then be persuaded  into believing that they could win big prizes such as Honda Civics, Proton Wiras, 42-inch Plasma TVs, LCD TVs, motorcycles, refrigerators, video cameras and handphones by spending "a little money" to redeem these prizes.

Once the victims were convinced of their chances to win these lucrative prizes, they were then asked to fill up a form agreeing to pay additional sums of money to actually purchase some inferior goods at inflated prices.

According to rumours, the scratch-and-win syndicates in Malaysia are controlled by 4 different "organisations" operating from a northern state in Peninsular Malaysia. These taikors are apparently filthy rich and are well known in the Chinese community for their charitable contributions to schools, temples and civic organisations.

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