18 February, 2008

It's a Scam !

Most probably, that is.

What happened is, me & a friend of mine decided to go on a part-time job-hunting spree. Today, we went for the interview at Wisma Cosway. According to the advert we saw on the newspaper, they were ready to pay RM 400 per assignment. Take-home data entry assignment.

Sounds good, huh ?


Anyway, so we entered the office. Kinda shabby, not much people around.

We did the routine stuff: fill up the application form and await for our interview. We waited in a room. The two of us.

A couple of minutes later, a Malay lady came in. She spoke fluent Bahasa Melayu, but little English. From the way she spoke, I could see that she was rather nervous. It also seemed like she was memorizing from a script.

Her flow was unnaturally smooth, and the words used were not the normal words we would used in conversations. It was rather formal, like those we would read on some advertisement campaign.

She keeps stressing 'our company has been establish for 4 years already, and so far we have encountered no problem'. Each time she actually used the same EXACT words.

So then she explained about the wages. Pretty lucrative, you know.

There are two kinds of assignment we could accept. One from the construction industry and the other from the travel agency industry. The construction one would pay RM 9 per page. And each assignment is 100 pages, with a duration of 2 weeks to complete it. Means I'd be getting RM 900 per assignment. She said these companies are located in: Wisma Genting, Wisma UOA, Menara PGRM... Making it seem so real and true.

Then came the tricky part. She said we had to pay RM 163 for some cost pentadbiran lah. Said that it would be a one-time only payment.

So I asked her, do I have to pay right-away or after I receive payment from my work. She answered my question 'in a circle'. In the end, I didn't really know what she meant.

Smart move it may seem. But she didn't know who she was dealing with. It's Angela la, c'mon man. I've been trained to persuade clients, to memorize scripts and to handle objections. Try to cheat me of my RM 163 ? Please lah. (Sau pei)

Anyways, we played along with her, saying we are just students and that we don't have so much money. We asked whether we could pay after we have received the payment. She said we could share, but still insisting that we have gotta pay now. So I asked her whether I could know the name of the company. Again she tried to avoid my question.

In the end, we said we had to consider about it and left.

Next, we went to some job agency located at the same building. My friend has dealt with them before and wanted to ask about vacancies currently available. As we talked, we mentioned the company we just visited. Straightaway the lady told us it's a scam.

So guys, beware when seeking for part-time jobs. Stay alert !

3 footprints:

Huh? said...

wow...it was rather enlightening to hear such scam existing around here...interesting news,angie..thanks for d wake up call..=)

Benjamin Lim said...

Hahahhaa wah cannot bully my cousin ha! Smart woman... yeala! SAU PEI LA! Hahaha best that part... sau pei sau pei sau pei! :P

M00nie said...

haha .. seems lik da cowzens luv da word sau pei.