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Once ‘fine’ day, on a sunny bright cheerful Friday morning, Agogo goes to work as usual. He is exceptionally happy today :DV as it is the last working day of the week. Suddenly, the annoying ringing tone of his phone breaks the silence of the morning. The number +10888 appears on the screen of the phone. He picks up.

Unknown caller (A): Hi sir.

Agogo: Harroww?

A: Hi, can I speak to Agogo?

Agogo: Yes, I’m. Speaking.

A: Hi sir, you have a overdue of RM4682.00 in your Ahh-H-Beee credit card. It’s over 3 months due now. :-t

Agogo: I think you have made a mistake here sir, I don’t have any credit card from your bank.

A: Are you sure about this? Are you sure you don’t have any credit card from our bank?

Agogo: Yes sir. I’m definitely sure about this.

A: This is a very serious issue here. I’ll suggest you to call Illegal Card Processing Center immediately.

Agogo: (paniccccccc :o ) Do you have the number of Illegal Card Processing Center????? Can you give me?????

A: Yes, here’s the number 03-80512345.

Agogo: (brain twisting, thinking fast, suspecting something fishy) Sir, before that, can I know what’s your name, your branch and so on? And yes, I’ll want to have your contact number too please…

A (AhBrain) : I’m AhBrain. From Desa Sri Hatamas branch. My number is 03-80515623 Ext 520

Conversation goes on with questions like…. How much that card owes your bank now? When’s the transactions made? Where is the card is applied from?

The card is applied on 8 June 2008 in Ambang Park. There is only one transaction made so far. It’s at IOI Mall. RM 4682.00.

Agogo actually note down all the details given during the phone call. While glancing throuh

Agogo: Okay okay thank you. I’ll call that number now!

By the time Agogo hangs up the call, he is already surrounded by his colleagues puzzling over what actually happended. Freaked out, he is not able to think properly. Quickly, he calls the number given by AhBrain.

Operator: Hi, illegal processing center here.

Agogo: Hi there, I need your help. I need to file a complaint or report or whatever…..

Operator: Okok, give me your name and number. We will get back to you soon.

Agogo gives his number and name to the operator.

Within split seconds, his phone rings up with the same number he dialed to just now. There is just no time for him to think carefully of what happened few moments ago.

Irene: Hi there, you need to file a complaint?

Agogo: Yes yess

Irene: Tell me more please.

Just moments after Agogo tries to explain in greater details on what happened, Irene cut in.

Irene: Hi sir, I’ll need to start recording this conversation for investigation purpose, is it ok?

Agogo: (wow, professional, that’s the way it suppose to be, right?) Ok!

Irene: We are recording now, carry on with our conversation just now.

So, Agogo just continue to explain everything he knows.

Irene: Ok now, we will need to investigate this case. We need to know if you have any active credit cards or ATM cards so that we will not block your active legimate cards while we conduct investigation. And during these 3 days of investigation, you are not allowed to do any transaction using your cards. We will also need to know the balance you have in your saving accounts and the limit of your credit card as well. We will purchase insurance for you also during these 3 days. In case of any loss of fund during this investigation period, you will get insured from this insurance policy.

Agogo: (sounds fair so far) Waaa, ada insurance summore one ahh?? Errr, okay….

Before he can start to think if there’s even such insurance policy exists, Irene continues to talk.

Irene: For that we will need you to give us your ATM and credit card numbers that you have.

Agogo: (harrrrrrrrrr…. sounds wrong) Errrr, okok, my CIMP bank number ATM is….. xxxxxxxxxx, MehBank ATM number is…. xxxxxxxxx and finally my CIMP credit card number is…. xxxxxxxxxx

Irene: Okay okay thankssss, as for your information, there’s a 16 digits number in the black strip at the back of your card. For security measure, you need to change the number there. We will ask our technical department to teach you on how to do so.

Agogo: (harrrrrrrrrrr… .again) Errr, okok.

Right after Irene hangs up, Agogo and his colleagues engaged in critical discussion. Agogo tells his colleagues what actually happened and everyone agrees that this is not going right and most probably it’s a scam/fraud.

Agogo calls to every bank he has card with and canceled all his cards. While Agogo calls each bank to cancel his cards, he keeps getting missed calls notification from his telco through SMSes. The technical department uses the very same number he first called to the illegal processing center.

He wonders why for such well-established department owned by the National Bank, they have only one phone number to use? Maybe they use some centralized calling system. As he tries to scan through his note taken, the prefix (first 4 digits) of the phone number for Ahh-H-Bee Desa Sri Hartamas and the Illegal Card Processing Center is the same! Wow, is this just a co-incident that both entities situated in the same area?? :-S

Before he can think more, his phone rings….

Technical: Hi sir, we are the technical department. I will teach you on how you can change your personal number on the black strip.

Agogo: Errrrr, okayyyy

Technical: How soon can you get to your respective banks ATM machine?

Agogo: Errrrrrrrr (with longer pause in between now trying to think what to say) 30 mins to CIMP bank. And then, another 15 mins to MehBank I think.

Technical: Okok good. Please call us as soon as you get to the bank.

Agogo: I think I should contact my bank directly to settle this issue, to report to them and to cancel my cards if necessary, what do you think?

Technical: It’s the same, you can report to us directly as we are from the Bank Negara.

No matter how hard technical lady tries to convince Agogo, Agogo still not feeling safe and right. 8-}

Agogo: I still don’t feel safe reporting over the telephone.  I think I’ll report this to the police directly and deal with my banks.

Technical sounds furious and warned that she is going to cancel the whole report case. Without hesitation, Agogo just says “go ahead, cancel!”

Agogo googled up to find the branch phone number of Ahh-H-Bee Desa Sri Hartamas just to verify things. He doesn’t use the number AhBrain gave just now.

Agogo: Hi there, can I speak to AhBrain?

Ahh-H-Bee Manager: Ooooo, you are the third person call in to find AhBrain today. There’s no such person here.

Agogo:Are you sureee???

Agogo starts to explain everything to the manager.

Ahh-H-Bee Manager:I think you got into some scam already. The previous callers also bumped into such similar incident like you too. There’s no such credit card number in our system too. So, I think you are pretty much screwed!

Agogo: (Oh my BBQ god x( ) Okay okay thanks, I think I should go to the station.

He spends the whole morning on the phone and the whole lunch time at the police station lodging report.

Lesson learned.

1. Do not take calls from unknown caller.

2. If you fails step 1 and take calls from unknown, do not simply trust what they say. Always verify verify and verify.

3. If you fails #2, do not give ANY details of yourself to the caller like name, address, I/C and so on.

4. If you fails #3 also, do not give critical information of yours like credit card and ATM cards numbers, account balance and so on.

5. If you fails all 4 items above like what Agogo :o just did in the story above, CANCEL all your exposed cards and LODGE a police report.

Note: Above story is created based on true story. Names and other details altered for security purposes.

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