Saturday December 11, 2010
Teacher who tried to sell superbike gets conned
By HAMDAN RAJA ABDULLAH
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MUAR: A teacher who advertised his 1,000cc superbike for sale on the Internet found himself conned off RM7,500 by a buyer who claimed to work in Bermuda. The teacher, in his 30s, told police the interested buyer, named Alex Charles and claiming to be a marine engineer, agreed to buy the machine for RM24,500.
Muar police chief Asst Comm. Mohammed Nasir Ramli said the bike was advertised for sale in September on the mudah.com.my website. Early last month, the teacher received an e-mail from Alex who asked him to open an account at PayPal.com.eu as he wanted to pay the teacher. The teacher did this and was told that the buyer had deposited RM20,000 into the account.
ACP Mohammed Nasir said the teacher was then asked to pay RM3,000 to a shipping agent and gave a local bank account number as the buyer had no time to do so. He said the teacher made the payment and several days later was asked to pay another RM4,500 as insurance payment as the buyer was busy and had no time to go to the bank.
He said the teacher then received an e-mail from PayPal.com.eu which stated that there was some RM36,500 which the buyer had deposited and asked the teacher to pay RM5,000 as international charges. ACP Mohammed Nasir said that at this point, the teacher became suspicious and believed he had been conned.
He lodged a police report on Nov 16. He said the public should be wary of any business dealings done with strangers on the Internet. In another case, ACP Mohammed Nasir said police had solved 25 motorcycle theft cases after they arrested a 21-year-old man on Dec 6.
He said initial investigations showed the man and several friends stole the machines from various places in the district and their activities began early this year. He said most of the machines were cannibalised and parts sold to unsuspecting parties, adding that police were now looking for the others.
