My Brother Got Cheated in Kuala Lumpur
Filed in: Life Log, Malaysia — November 25th, 2006
My younger brother’s phone (Sony Ericsson Z520) got cheated in Kuala Lumpur.
My story
I dated my brother to a movie last week. He had class till evening that day. So, I waited for him at Sungei Wang.
The show was to start at 7:30pm. But my brother did not reach until 6:40pm. Considering we were to have dinner together. I called him. He told me that he was on the way but might be late because he wanted to help a guy, who claimed to have lost his wallet, by lending his phone.
Based on my experience living in Kuala Lumpur, I smelled something fishy and warned him. But, my brother - who is kind and innocent - insisted on helping the stranger. He told me that he will be careful.
Half an hour later, my brother had not reached and there was no news from him again. “Oh no, something has gone wrong!”, I worried. I called his mobile phone again and again but nobody picked up.
7:30pm. Still no news from my brother. His phone number was unreachable. “Oh my god, tell me he is all right!” I was frightened. I called my mom, sister, and his housemate. My mother was frightened as well.
While we were praying for his safety, my elder brother called me. “He called me just now. He got cheated and he is coming to your place now.”
“Phew~ thank God!”, my younger brother was fine!
7:45pm. I met him. He looked exhausted. My brother told me his story while we were having dinner. And, the movie tickets were wasted.
His story
My brother met the stranger near Bukit Nanas monorail station. He was a fat indian guy and claimed himself to be a lecturer. He told my brother in English that he had lost his wallet and wanted to borrow phone to make a call to cancel his credit card.
My kind heart and innocent brother lend his phone to the guy. The stranger made a call and told my brother that it couldn’t get through. He asked my brother to follow him and find his friend nearby.
My brother followed him while the phone was still with the stranger.
They went into ING tower. The stranger went up the tower and my brother followed him. However, the guy suddenly disappeared when my brother didn’t notice. My brother waited on that floor for half an hour until he realized that he got cheated.
My two cents
This is not a news to most people in Kuala Lumpur. Sorry to say it is a place where we need to be alert all the time.
My younger brother is a fresh college student in Kuala Lumpur. He learned the lesson after getting his family and himself into a frightening ordeal.
The moral: Don’t be kind to stranger.
It is sad to say so but we need to protect ourselves. *sigh*
Your stories? I think some of you have similar stories. Please share with us in your blogs and/or leave a comment here. It will alert other readers and avoid the same thing from happening to them. Thank you.
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November 25th, 2006 at 1:32 am
I am not sure if I agree with you because I believe, shunning away from strangers because of past encounters would eventually lead to the birth of an entire unfriendly civilization.
If we let a fall stop us from learning to walk, we’ll never stand tall like everyone else.
Perhaps your brother could have “helped” the man in a better way. ie. make the call on the guy’s behalf or offer to call the police. If the guy seriously lost his wallet, calling the police would be beneficial because he needs to make a police report.
November 25th, 2006 at 3:32 am
Seems your brother at TARC right? I went there quite often… Give me some protection money and I shall do my best…
But really la… KL IS like this … Peace my arse…
November 25th, 2006 at 4:03 am
Hi Liew, your brother is considered lucky because that indian guy just walked away peacefully. I live in Johor Bahru, this kind of shit happens so frequently and you’ll get numb of listening.
I always carry coins when I go out. If a stranger approaches me like that, I’ll give him all the coins I have, for him to make any phone call at phone booth. That’s the best help I can offer to a stranger.
Yvonne, you do not know how dangerous can it be if you don’t take precaution when dealing with suspicious strangers. Here’s REAL story to share.
Last week, my friend was hanging around at Starbucks, City Square Johor Bahru, alone. Suddenly this crackhead sat besides him and asked for help.
Told fishy story that he’d lost his wallet somewhere and needed some cash.
My friend of course refused to give him cash just like that. Then that crackhead took out a syringe, filled with unidentifiable colorish liquid, placed it near my friend’s thigh under table and threatened my friend. What would you do if that was you being threatened like that?
Now here’s the best part. This macho friend of mine, calmly negotiated with that crackhead, kept saying that “Let’s go out, and you’ll get your money. you don’t want to attract any attention here”.(This took place in the air-conditioned indoor part of Starbucks, where many others were busy with their own laptops).
God knows what was in that crackhead’s mind, he was convinced and walked to the door with my friend followed after him, carried his briefcase. When he pushed open the door, my friend slammed the briefcase on his head for one good time and kicked him out of the door. Immediately my friend shouted for help, and two malay staffs at Starbucks went chasing after that crackhead.
It was a long chase until he was brought down by an off-duty Singapore police officer on the side of railway station(just besides JB custom). I bet he didn’t know that crackhead was carrying that friggin’ syringe.
After that, it was all routine, crackhead was brought back to City Square’s security room, then police came. My friend was stucked at the police station downtown for nearly 3 hours.
This is a very closed buddy of mine, you can see the news on sinchew paper, johor edition, date 23/11/07. Best of all, that crackhead only sentenced for 8 months. A big “wtf”.
Now, being friendly and helpful is not a bad thing, but your own safety comes in the VERY FIRST place. Be cautious out there, it’s a dangerous world we’re living in.
Long story I’ve shared, as requested. Fill in more guys!
November 25th, 2006 at 4:13 am
Ahh, hate it when I can’t edit posted comment. The date was 23/11/06, sorry for the typo.
November 25th, 2006 at 4:32 am
Another mlaysia boleh… but a shameful one. Just be careful guys.
November 25th, 2006 at 7:11 am
Yien Bin You have a good point there. Nowadays these people can resort to violence for money. How barbaric. It goes to show this country is in serious need of social re-engineering. Forming NGOs to combat crime with government and the people’s support. Do a study on why more and more Malaysians are coming to the verge of desperation, and make changes from there.
November 25th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Don’t trust Indian stranger in KL!
Don’t trust indian and chinese stranger in JB.
Don’t trust Malay when they ride thier motorcycle near by u.
November 25th, 2006 at 7:39 am
My mom had a simmiliar experiance but at differentlocation, my house. There is 1 guy insisted to borrow my phone and wanted to get inside. My mother was afraid don’t let him enter but he waited outside for e very long time. he went awayand come again and waited untill suddenly my mom dosen’t notice when he disappeared
November 25th, 2006 at 9:11 am
I am coming from Sarawk. Here is my story, i was being threatened by 2 guys at bus stop with the knife and they want me to give the hp and wallet. sigh.. The bus stop at highway. WTF.. so many cars pass by.. and the back of bus stop is the house.. It is afternoon again. around 3:20p.m Two non chinese guy hold me and threaten me. There are another two guys in the car. One guy use his big fist to punch my face. damn.. And i asked them to get what they want. BUT give back my IC and my gf’s picture. They didnt’ want to return back to me and asked if my wallet has the ATM Machine card or not. If there is a card inside, he will return it to me. WTF.. of course i said i don’t have the card. If i told them that i have the ATM machine card, they might bring me to somewhere and hit me and ask for the password. If i give wrong password, they might hit until i give the real password.
November 25th, 2006 at 9:44 am
Sick man. So many crimes on the street. I was in Rome and Holland this year and it was safer there. Somehow, Msian streets is turning into dangerous places. Soon we might need to carry guns, tazers, hire bodyguards, stun guns, take martial arts for the sake of our kids and wives.
November 25th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Thanks for sharing this story. Something need to be done to stop this from happening again.
But bringing guns won’t solve the problem.
The best thing that can be done is, never ever to go anywhere alone. Bring a friend along.
Just my opinion
November 25th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Its really bad, moreover, if it was by done by an Indian then it is really shameful. I do not know when Indian goes outside their country why they indulge in these type of activities. As all fingers are not same, all Indians are not like that. It really hurt me when I heard that some Indian, does these type of shameful act, in foreign land.
November 25th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Heya shouldn’t have lent him the phone, your brother should have made the call for him.
- MENJ
November 25th, 2006 at 10:54 am
This is not something new. Happened many many years ago!
November 25th, 2006 at 11:16 am
colbert: those robbers or bad people do carry knife, guns and weapons. sigh.. 2 people robbed me.. and another 2 were siting in the car. i do not know if they were caught by police or not. sigh…
November 25th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Kuala Lumpur nowadays…. *sigh*
November 25th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
well..wat do we expect. “bagaimana acuan begitulah kuihnya”. we have education minister showing off ‘keris’ live on national tv. sad to say..we trained ppl from young. at least we know our efforts produce results.
November 25th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
“Ashok” — It’s not Indian from India. Its local Indian. What liewcf mean is its Indian, Malaysian.
“hasilox” — Hello showing off the keris its not the point which this crime is rising. It how parents mold their kids and many other bad influence around us. Not such thing like keris.. :p
November 25th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
huh? education minister showing off “keris” live on national tv?? when?
November 25th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
I think he mentioned bout the logo on something..cause keris its like traditional logo bout ‘keberanian’ and courage for malaysian.. i dun think that should be the reason..
November 25th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
said to hear that. at least he does not hurt your brother.
November 25th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
it was lucky that your brother was not harmed.. it is a really sad sight for malaysia especially next year will be vmy 2007, and with such social problems, i wonder who’s coming to visit malaysia… taxi drivers conning tourists and charging more (cheating) even for locals.. shit arse traffic jams, lousy public transports.. many other social problems… we are all so feed up with all those excuses or statements given by these authority.. and as much as the NGOs can do, it’s not good enough as there’s no support or much action taken by the authority..
November 26th, 2006 at 1:30 am
[...] My brother’s got cheated and lost his mobile phone. On the next day, I accompanied him to buy his new phone — LG KG320. [...]
November 26th, 2006 at 2:43 am
What do you think we should do more ? This bad thing has happened to a problogger’s brother. Lets rack our brains out to find a way to protect our family, love ones, sisters, brothers. Has anyone found Rakan COP useful ?
November 26th, 2006 at 8:42 am
it is sad that this sort of thing happen and its increasing in malaysia….sometimes you dont have good return eventhough you do good favour with people
November 26th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
“Izzatz13″ - spot-on that bad influence around us is one of main reason crime is rising. Just imagine the extend of the influence of an Education Minister’s behaviour have on students.
“Jack” - I am referring to the live broadcast of UMNO’s general meeting. I have no political biases and I am all for anything that is better for Malaysian. Many people are talking about this. Can read it here also:-
http://maverickysm.blogspot.com/2005/08/keris-wielding-act-symbol-of-struggle.html
Heard that recent microchip heist in Penang might delay worldwide computers (affected models) delivery. Hope it won’t scare away the affected companies and investors. Else, more people will be out of job
November 26th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
hasilox: thanks for the links.
colbert: what can we do? if you see crime happen in front of you, what are you going to do? will you help the victim?
let’s go to learn martial art or kungfu. 
November 26th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
sad to hear that…this kind of people just can’t be stop without the help of the government
anyway it just teach us not to help anyone….which is kind of bad for our culture
November 29th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Yvonne Foong at the first comment is right. Just because strangers can be dangerous people, we shouldn’t ignore them. There are other ways to help them.
Help strangers, but be smart and alert. Following a stranger into an eclosed building where the both of you are going to be isolated is just stupid for many reasons. Like Yvonne said, your brother could’ve made the call for him or they should’ve gone elsewhere with more people around.
July 4th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I would like to offer some advice here.
If your are fresh out in a new environment and you need to travel a lot try to go in a group and do not attract attention to yourself. Always be aware of your surroundings and the people around you. Look for safe house where you can seek help fast in case of any dangers. Don’t expect too much from the public as these people have also been cheated once too often before. The best way is to stay alert at all times and go straight to your destination and if you need to scout the surrounding area do it discretely. Never let your guard down for one moment. You might consider taking up a security course as the future for this kind of work is very bright.
August 11th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
My experience is different, i took a taxi going to KLCC, the driver told me its for only 2 ringgit, but when we reach near the place he stopped nearby then asked me to pay 94 ringgit, when i told him he said only 2 ringgit the taxi driver started shouting at me and he tried to grab my bag, so i have no choice then give him the amount he is asking, this taxi drivers are no good to strangers , they are liers and robbers so anyone who wants to go to Kuala Lumpur you must be careful and dont take taxi at all, u may take train of bus to a certain place u want to see, maybe i will no longer visist KL again …
August 12th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
@Joseph A. Labbao: sorry about your bad experience in KL. I too dislike to take taxi in KL.