Wife saves husband from falling prey to Macau scam

THE timely intervention of a "nagging wife" saved her husband from falling victim to a Macau scam, which would otherwise have left him poorer by more than RM20,000.
According to a report in China Press today, members of a Macau scam syndicate had their would-be victim, a teacher in Teluk Intan, Perak, on his phone for two hours before he realised that it was a scam.
According to the report, the teacher, who did not want to be named, "sobered up" only after his wife, who failed to knock some sense into him for close to an hour with her verbal warnings, dangled before him a piece of paper with a hand-written message in Chinese, "Beware! Phone scam".
Recounting his "ordeal" to China Press, the teacher said someone claiming to be a police officer demanded to know why he was absent from a court in Kelantan early that day to face charges for money-laundering involving RM26,000.
As he tried to explain for the next hour that he was innocent, the phone on the other end of the line changed hand several times and someone purportedly from Bukit Aman finally told him that the matter could be settled privately.
"The callers were good talkers and I couldn't hang up as I was so nervous," he said, adding that he was glad his wife returned home then and came to his rescue.
"But for almost an hour, I ignored her repeated warnings. I even told her to get lost, telling her that I was discussing important matters.
"But just as I was about to go online to bank in money to some account as directed (by the scammers), my wife's message suddenly made sense to me," he said, adding that he hung up and went to lodge a police report.