GrabThis - No Insurance

A GrabCar driver has accused the company of advising its drivers to make a personal report in the event of an accident, instead of stating that they were serving the company’s customers at the time.

Lim Kim Hwa said the company had also refused to bear any responsibility for damage to his car, obtained in an accident while on duty. The 30-year-old said he had no choice but to get help from Grab, the company behind the service, after his insurance company rejected his claims application.

“Before I filed a police report and the insurance claims, I called Grab asking for advice, and they told me to make a personal report. But after I filed the report, the insurance company told me that they would not pay for the damages to my car because I had used my personal car for commercial use.

He added that Grab then refused to pay for the damages to his car, saying that it bore no responsibility towards GrabCar drivers when it came to accidents. A check on the Grab website states the terms of agreement between the company and driver, which suggest that the law may be on the side of the firm in this case.

“You shall be solely responsible for any and all claims, judgments and liabilities resulting from any accident, loss or damage which is due to or is alleged to be a result of the motor/passenger vehicle and/or taxi/passenger delivery service howsoever operated,” the Grab website said.

Aside from GrabCar, Grab also operates the GrabTaxi service (formerly known as MyTaxi), GrabHitch and GrabShare.

Based on the police report, where he had declared his occupation as “pemandu Grab” (Grab driver), Kim Hwa said a passenger had opened the door to alight from his car but did not see a motorcycle coming up from behind, causing an accident which damaged his car door among others.

Kim Hwa said based on his experience, he believes that GrabCar drivers who may have been involved in accidents have been falsifying their accident police reports in order not to get rejected when filing claims with their car insurance providers.

“I think I may be the first person to tell the truth as a GrabCar driver,” Kim Hwa said, referring to the report he had filed on the accident.

He added that as such, he believes that the thousands of GrabCar drivers on the road across various cities in Malaysia are driving without the protection of insurance. “I just hope that GrabCar service will be stopped temporarily until all issues are resolved,” Kim Hwa said.

LuxStyle - Internet Nightmare

Internet shopping is usually a harmless pastime – but for these victims, browsing on an online retailer’s site only brought them headache and worry after they were sent, and billed for, items they did not even order.

National Consumer Complaints Centre legal and policy senior manager Shabana Naseer Ahmad shared experiences suffered by complainants who were sent unsolicited beauty products by LuxStyle International Sales ApS, which trades under the name LuxStyle.

A 59-year-old woman said she visited LuxStyle’s website because she wanted mascara for her daughter. (Some names have been excluded for the victims’ privacy.) After registering with her personal information to see the prices, she was shocked at how expensive the products were and decided not to buy. She was even more shocked when a package was delivered to her and is now unsure what to do with it.

The youngest complainant was a 14-year-old girl, who saw the company’s blackhead removal mask promoted on Instagram. After checking the price, her mother told her not to buy it since it was too expensive. However, the item was still sent to their home.

Men were also taken in, like one 20-year-old student in Australia who was researching prices for blackhead removal masks. When he received an unsolicited package, he contacted the centre as well as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCA) for advice.

They shared a public alert on the retailer and asked him to lodge a complaint.

The centre’s legal and policy manager Mandeep Singh said people should be cautious when dealing with websites asking for personal information. “Would you give a stranger your details? People should treat websites with equal caution,” he said.

Housewife Sinar Musa, 29, said she narrowly avoided falling victim despite being bombarded with advertisements by LuxStyle on Facebook. “It was really popular about two weeks ago, you couldn’t help seeing it. But now the ads seem to have died down,” she said, adding that she only found out about the pitfalls from her friends recently.

There were also many complaints made by Malaysians and Singapo­reans to a Facebook page “LuxStyle International Scam Singapore Page” that was advising victims on what to do if they received the unwanted products.

Student Muhammad Syahir Asyraf posted that the company told him he had agreed to receive the items by clicking the “Order Now” button on its site, even though he closed the order window as he had no credit card or PayPal account. “I feel like I was ‘tricked’ into this. Am I at fault? Is it legal for a company to send packages you didn’t actually order?” he said.

Facebook user Deema Yanni Ma’at posted about her bad experience, including receiving poor quality mascara and bad customer service when she tried to return the unwanted products.

“I believe this firm tracked who visited their website and because I had purchased their lash mascara product before, they just created an order for the mask and sent me e-mail confirmation,” she said.

After a lengthy e-mail exchange, she said the company finally agreed to cancel the order she did not make but later sent her an invoice claiming she owed them money as a late penalty, even though the order was cancelled.

RM177 Million Frozen - MBI Group

The Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry has frozen RM177 million deposited into 91 bank accounts linked to Penang-based MBI Group. The ministry’s enforcement unit director Datuk Mohd Roslan Mahayudin said the bank accounts, 48 individual and 43 company accounts, were all linked to MBI Group.

“In the raid, various documents which I am not able to reveal, financial transaction details, computer appliances and several luxury items were also confiscated. This included two units of gold bars, branded handbag, branded watches and jade jewellery,” he told a news conference here today.

Mohd Roslan said that no suspects have been detained at the moment. MBI Group operates from out of the M Mall O2O along Jalan Datuk Keramat in George Town, Penang, which allows shoppers to trade using virtual coins in a financial scheme under the same company.

On Monday, a multi-agency team comprising officers from the police force, Bank Negara Malaysia, Companies Commission of Malaysia, and the Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry raided two MBI offices, the one in Penang as well as in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur in an operation called “Ops Token”.

Mohd Roslan said that the scheme linked to MBI Group was known as Mfc Club or Mface Club, and authorities conducted six concurrent raids at premises in Klang Valley and Penang that were linked to the business.

“The raids were conducted under the Direct Sales and Anti-Pyramid Scheme Act 1993 (AJLSAP 1993), as well as Acts enforced by the Bank Negara Malaysia and the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM),” he said. He said the firm was being investigated for operating an unlicensed direct selling scheme and for promoting a pyramid scheme, among others.

The firm was also suspected of violating laws against money laundering, which he said was why the bank accounts were frozen. MBI Group offers a financial scheme involving virtual coins, which “members” may join by investing an initial US$5,000 (RM21,419) for points. Members are then rewarded with bonus points according to a pyramid-like scheme.

Bank Manager Cheats Senior Citizens

A former bank manager claimed trial at the Ampang magistrates’ court for cheating three people including two senior citizens, a sum totalling RM520,000 in a fixed deposit investment scheme, last year.

Ng Yee Lin, 33, was charged with deceiving Yong Loo Kim, 49, Seah Seong Yew, 76, and Soon Thiam Yew, 70, to invest in the scheme. She allegedly committed the offence at Hong Leong Bank, Taman Putra Ampang between Aug 16 and Dec 19, 2016.

The offence falls under Section 420 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum 10 years’ imprisonment, fine, or both, upon conviction.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Norhashimah Hashim asked the court to impose a RM60,000 bail with one surety for all charges.While Ng’s counsel Edwin Navis, pleaded for a minimum bail, saying his client is the sole breadwinner from her family and is currently jobless. Magistrate Haslinda A Raof then set bail at RM24,000 with one surety and fixed July 21 for mention.

Another Money Game For Greedies

Another multi-billion ringgit “money game” scheme ostensibly involved in foreign exchange (forex) trading and other online businesses, has tipped over, leaving its investors in the lurch.

The Malaysian-run scheme called “Maxim Trader” has been red-flagged by Bank Negara. It once boasted having over 50,000 investors from Malaysia, Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries. It is said to have amassed more than RM20 billion in funds since its inception in 2013 – the biggest money game pool reported since news of get-rich-quick schemes began surfacing in recent months.

According to several disgruntled investors who spoke to theSun, they had been introduced to Maxim Trader as a company managed by Maxim Capital Ltd, a company initially registered in New Zealand and subsequently in the Cayman Islands.

Three Malaysians, all with Datuk Seri and Datuk titles, were named as founders of the company while several other individuals, including foreigners, were named as top officers. Apart from glossy brochures and high-powered seminars, the company went to great lengths in marketing the scheme in grandeur and positioned it to lure even the sharpest and hardened investors.

Investors were treated to paid overseas tours and taken on trips to gold mines supposedly projected for investments. Impressed and taken in by the grandeur, investors comprising retirees, businessmen, civil servants including high-ranking police officers, politicians and other professionals pumped in millions of ringgit hoping to strike it rich.

As with all such schemes, the investors said they were drawn by the high returns of up to 150% for investments placed over a lock-in period of 18 months. Monthly returns promised were between 5% and 8% for investments between US$5,000 (RM21,000) and US$100,000 (RM425,000). By mid-2015, just about two years after the scheme was launched, the investments had grown and doubled as promised but only on paper.

However, the company’s investment and recruitment agents or “uplines” as they are usually called in such pyramid structured schemes, advised investors to refrain from making withdrawals of the capital and profits to enable their investments to grow further. Many took their advice while thousands of others who chose otherwise however found they faced difficulties in recovering their monies.

Months later, with no payments forthcoming and suspicions rising among the investors, the company announced its “business expansion” through the acquisition of two companies – the Royal Globe Holdings Inc a company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange; and RMC Mining Sdn Bhd, a company specialising in gold mining.

Investors who had neither received their profits nor recovered their initial capital were promised shares in both companies as restitution and were coaxed into pumping more money into the scheme. It is learnt that many investors took up the offer and placed more money with Maxim Trader.

By early 2016, investors found themselves turning into victims when updates and news of the company’s progress and activities began dwindling. Its official website was no longer available and its top officials who once showed up at every event to promote the scheme, were suddenly no longer reachable.

Local recruitment officers who had drawn in hundreds of investors were left to deal with angry victims, often appeasing them with empty promises. A victim, who only wanted to be known as Lee, an accountant by profession, told theSun that although he was an experienced investor, he fell for the scheme, parting with more than RM1.2 million two years ago, and to date has not received a single sen in returns.

“My capital is stuck and I do not know who to turn to. There are people who gave up their savings, sold or mortgaged their properties to invest. We are all caught in a quandary. We are at their mercy and were told to take whatever they give but to date we have received nothing but empty promises,” he said.

Another victim who pooled her savings and that of her friends and their families lost almost RM9 million that was invested in the company since 2013. Several of those affected also confided that they were fearful of pursuing operators of the scheme as there were claims of them having alliances with the underworld and “people in high places”.

They also claimed that that the murder of a Malaysian businessman in Thailand two years ago was linked to the scheme. Tired and having been patient for over two years, a group of investors lodged police reports last month and appointed a law firm to undertake the recovery of their funds.

The group is expecting to gather more victims for a joint-suit against Maxim Trader.

Selangor Commercial Crimes Investigations Department head ACP Wan Rukman Wan Hassan when contacted by theSun confirmed that police had received two reports against Maxim Trader and have started investigations. He said police are gathering information on the company and will be tracking down those behind the scheme.

While Bank Negara has blacklisted the company as involved in unlicensed and illegal operations, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which have a huge number of investors had busted the company’s activities in 2015.

Who Is A Aroljesuthasan

Some people like a bit of fanfare when they do their bit for charity. Others keep a low profile and lend a helping hand simply because easing the burden of others, especially the destitute, is their way of serving God.

Such is the case with former police lance corporal A Aroljesuthasan, 57, who was just recently in the news after he pledged to make a once-yearly donation of half a month’s pension, or RM500, for the next 20 years to two young children who lost their parents in an accident.

Arol, as he prefers to be called, has been doing such good deeds for years, FMT found out, when the ex-cop reluctantly agreed to an interview, after having successfully “flown under the radar” for so long.

“What the right hand gives, the left should not know. I am not doing this for recognition, I am doing this for God and my afterlife,” Arol said of his habit of scanning the newspapers for news of those needing assistance, monetary and otherwise, despite his then modest take-home salary of RM1,500.

Now retired and newly married, Arol came to know about the two sisters after they were left orphaned in a crash at Sungai Bakap, near Perai, on the North-South Expressway, on April 28. News reports of the accident said their father, Khosim Ismail, 32, and mother Khairunnisa Ahmad Kamaluddin, 31, had held tightly onto the children to brace them from the impact of the crash.

Their lorry slammed into another parked on the emergency lane of the expressway, killing the parents and leaving Khairiyah Alisha Khosim, 10, and Khaira Amni, one, with injuries. Moved by their tragic circumstances, Arol visited the sisters at the Penang Hospital the first chance he got.

“When I saw them, I told my wife, we had to help them. So I wrote a contract stating RM500 of my RM1,000 pension in December every year will go to them.

“Why December? Because it is the month before school starts… so they get enough money to buy uniforms and other needs for school. I have pledged to help them for 19 years.“Even if I die, my wife will pay on my behalf. No matter what happens, they will get this money until they can work on their own.

“Ultimately, I want the two children to grow up to be useful Malaysians and maybe join the police force in remembrance of me,” Arol said.

Taiping-born Arol moved to Penang in 1981 for his first posting as a policeman at the Patani Road police station. He spent most of his 36 years in the force at the station and briefly at the Bukit Tengah station near Bukit Mertajam.

Last year, he married his long-time friend and Penang High Court interpreter M Susheela Devi, 47. Even after retiring from the force in 2006, Arol continues to help the poor and needy, using some of the extra income he earns from a small plot of land he rents to poultry farmers.

When asked how many people he has helped to date, he politely declined to give an exact figure except to say “maybe 10 people or more”. Arol recalled one particular incident when he helped a Malay man whose newborn daughter had a hole in her heart.

“I heard about the case from a friend at Penang Hospital. But the man had discharged his daughter and left for Sungai Petani. I managed to get the man’s number and asked him why (he discharged his baby). He told me he was a single parent and had to put food on the table for two other children. He said if he was to allow the baby to go through with the surgery, he would have to stay at the hospital to watch over her, and he was not prepared to do that.”

Moved by the man’s plight, Arol said he gave the man RM700 from his savings and offered to drive him and the baby back to Penang Hospital for the life-saving surgery. I will never forget that day. He shook my hand. Tears fell freely, wetting my hands. He called me recently, telling me to inform him if ever my phone number changed.

“I asked why and he said he wanted his daughter to thank me in person when she grows up, that a pak cik had helped her live,” he said.

Make Our Planet Great Again

French President Emmanuel Macron said Donald Trump had made an historic error Thursday by abandoning the Paris climate agreement, and urged frustrated US climate scientists and entrepreneurs to come and work in France.

And cheekily adapting the nationalist slogan used by Trump on his election campaign trail, Macron urged defenders of the climate to “make our planet great again.”

In a TV address broadcast both in French and English, Macron said he respected Trump’s decision, “but I do think it is an actual mistake both for the US and for our planet.”

“Climate change is one of the major issues of our time. It is already changing our daily lives but it is global,” Macron said.

“Everyone is impacted and if we do nothing our children will know a world of migrations, of wars of shortage, a dangerous world, it is not the future we want for ourselves, it is not the future we want for our children, it is not the future we want for our world.”