I’m sharing my story here hoping to spread awareness to the public to prevent similar incidents from happening to you.
I posted a listing on my carousel account wanting to sell away my MacBook Air for $700. A customer chatted to buy my product and she asked for my contact number for easier communication and we chatted on Whatsapp. Her name was Mary Fernado and the number she used was a Thailand number +66968390310. (might just be a one-time sim card she bought to scam)
Basically, she showed interest to buy the product like a normal customer would do. She then said she was currently in Thailand on a project seminar, but she resides in Woodlands, Singapore. She has a son studying in Malaysia, Selangor and the laptop was for him and her husband was in India for medical reasons.
Initially, I said I can deliver the laptop to woodlands when she is back but she insisted posting by Fedex. She offered to do bank transfer and said she would pay the additional charges for the posting. I asked if Singpost was ok but she insisted either Fedex or UPS. Believing that Fedex was a rather well-known and trustworthy company, I agreed to it.
The whole posting process was rather complicated, thus we discussed it and she agreed to pay me $800 dollar instead. She showed no hesitation to increase the price which is a red flag. She kept hurrying me to post out the item as she said it was urgent and opted for the quickest service by fedex.
She claimed to have transferred the money into my bank after we exchanged bank details. However after several hours, I still did not receive the money. She then told me there was some issues as she wasn’t aware her husband used the money in her POSB account for medical treatment in India. She was only able to wire me the money via an Australian Bank and she went ahead to do so and sent me a screenshot that looked like a ss of a bank app on her phone. The picture looked rather shady and suspicious as it looked like a very old IOS on an iPhone. And as expected the money did not reach my account. She then said she doesn’t know what’s going on and will contact the bank as the money was already deducted from her account. She continued hurrying me to mail the parcel out and even scolded me for being rude to her (like how a mother would) and she assured me that she wasn’t a scammer and wouldn’t just do something like that for $800 as she is a mother herself. She then sent me a picture of her passport and her son’s address and Malaysia number and address. The son’s name is Daniel Fernando (066758807) but the number never went through and his address is B2-01, Block 2, SEGi University Tower, Jalan Teknologi 2/1, Kota Damansara, 47810 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Malaysia.
And this is the most STUPID thing I have done in my either life, to MAIL THE PARCEL…. The parcel will take around 2 days to be sent over to Malaysia. The day after the parcel was handled to fedex, i felt something uneasy as her replies became less frequent after she saw the confirmation slip from fedex. I then called Fedex to ask them to hold the parcel and they said ok. However, 2 days after i called to check with fedex to see if they held my parcel but guess what, they said the parcel was DELIVERED 2 days ago. I was super displeased and i was so disappointed by FEDEX as i thought they were a reliable company and the fact that i paid over $60+ extra for the delivery service, this was what they gave me.
So from then on, I wasn’t able to contact Mary as she blocked number. She was also in contact with my GF but after a few days, she blocked her too. We weren’t able to contact her from then on. We then went to try to call her using a public phone and she picked up. Initially, when the call went through, there was a voice saying smth like “the number you have dialled is not available….” however, it sounded very fake and feels like its pre-recorded and someone just recorded the voice and placed it beside the phone. After the weird voice, a lady picked up. I believe she was “Mary” she kept saying the wrong number and please stop disturbing her when we called and said we have contacted the police and all. But I believe that was her and the number was valid, but i think she is in Malaysia the whole time and they are professional scammers behind a group of people. I did some research online and realised the person Mary Fernando used to work in Propnex Singapore but hr licensed have expired last year. I emailed propnex trying to get her information but they refused to disclose the info.
This whole incident has dragged almost half a month. We have contacted the police, contacted Fedex but there is no update and progress. The laptop is gone and no money was received. So now, we are just helpless and hope that by sharing this story, we can spread awareness and get some advice from people on what we can do to pursue this case. Is there really nothing left to do? I have read many scam cases online and i know reporting to police and waiting for them to handle the case is really ineffective and pretty much they won’t do anything or will only get back to you maybe after months or years. Please give advice if you have experienced such incidents before and know what can be done from here… Thanks
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