WITH fraudsters growing more cunning, they are now exploiting personal information to craft scams so convincing that many don’t realise they’re being targeted until it’s too late.
Azila Ariffin shared how she and her husband narrowly avoided being scammed by a fake SMS, disguised to look like it came from their bank.
The message claimed that her credit card points were about to expire and urged her to claim “luminous rewards” through an attached link.
Tempted by the offer, the couple clicked the link and selected expensive kitchenware as a reward.
The site then prompted them to pay a RM5 shipping fee — but only accepted payment via bank card.
“Luckily, my credit card and bank card were downstairs, and I was too lazy to go and get them,” she said.
Instead, she used her husband’s card. When she clicked to proceed, an error message appeared — and, almost immediately, her husband received a notification that a transaction was being attempted on his bank account.
“There was another transaction trying to charge over AED 200. He rejected it, and then got a notification saying his card had reached its daily limit,” she added.
Azila shared the experience to warn others.
She noted that many commenters pointed out banks do not send links via SMS short code, urging the public to treat any such messages with caution.
