SUSPECTED SCAM: PLEASE TAKE NOTE!

Dear Members of the Perak Bar

I would like to relate my experience to you regarding a suspected scam.

Two weeks ago I received a call from a Mr. Xuan from Hong Kong. He said that he was from a development company in Hong Kong and that their company would be investing in a resort project in Ipoh. He then proceeded to ask if I could meet him when he arrives in Ipoh. I said yes and he proceeded to ask me for my mobile number.

On 25.05.2009 I received a call from a Mr. Alan Lee. He informed me that he is a colleague of Mr. Xuan. He further informed me that he had just arrived in Malaysia and that he would be in Ipoh on 27.05.2009. He promptly made an appointment with me over the phone to meet on 27.05.2009.

I met Mr. Xuan (Manager) and Mr. Alan Lee (General Manager) both of XYZ Group International Co., Ltd and XYZ Group (Asia) Development Ltd at the lobby of the Syuen Hotel on 27.05.2009 at 3.00 p.m which was apparently where they were staying as informed to me by them. After the initial hand shake we proceeded to the coffee house of the said hotel for a drink.

I asked them how they came to know of my firm and they replied that they had found us in the Yellow pages. That answer aroused my suspicion but as they are potential clients I did not want to question them further. I know for a fact that lawyers cannot advertise in the Yellow pages!

I asked them why they wanted a small firm like mine to act for them in such an important matter. Mr. Alan Lee told me that they cannot trust big firms as the turnover was quite high. They wanted someone to look after their company’s affairs on a long term basis and decided that our small firm suited their needs. They said that they were willing to pay us a retainer of RM50,000.00 per month to act as their advisers. Mr. Alan Lee informed me that the company has many years of experience in the construction industry and that they have numerous developments in Hong Kong, Macau, China and Vietnam.

After a few questions and answers they told me that the final say on whether to appoint my firm as their legal advisers lay with their Company Chairman. Mr. Alan Lee proceeded to ask me if I could make a trip to Hong Kong to meet with his Chairman on an urgent basis. He told me that it would be an all expenses paid trip and ideally I should depart by 1.06.2009.

I told Mr. Alan Lee that I needed to go back to check on my free dates as I did not want the trip to interfere with my Court days. As we parted ways Mr. Alan Lee told me that he would get in touch with me again.

When I left the meeting around 3.50p.m, I felt happy with the outcome. We touched on some general things, nothing too business like. Neither Mr. Lee nor Mr. Xuan asked to see our Company profile. When I offered advice on the acquisition of land they told me that they have appointed an agent to handle that part of their affairs and they just needed our firm to look through some legal documents as and when something comes up.

When I arrived back at the office I proceeded to browse the website http://www.XYZ.com which was printed on the business card of Mr. Xuan and Mr. Alan Lee. The website was in Mandarin which I could not understand.

I proceeded to perform a Google search on the group of companies called XYZ Group International Co., Ltd and XYZ Group (Asia) Development Ltd but to my surprise none of these names were found. How could such an important company not have any web presence whatsoever?

At that moment I received a call from my sister. I related my experience to her and she too tried to look for the names of these two companies without success.

Finally we came to the conclusion that this could be a scam to lure me into leaving Malaysia for Hong Kong. Who knows what could have happened then.

I proceeded to call Syuen Hotel today on 28.05.2009 on the pretext that I needed to pass something back to Mr. Alan Lee and Mr. Xuan but I was informed by the reception that neither Mr. Alan Lee nor Mr. Xuan were guests at the hotel.

I cannot verify for certain that this is a scam, but all the elements seem to suggest something shady and not altogether kosher. Please do not fall for the promises of being awarded huge projects only to end up being poorer in the end.

I will be making a police report in due course.

Submitted by
Ng Keem Ming


(All names have been changed as it cannot be confirmed that this was a scam)