A recent incident involving a huge Pokémon product purchase came to light after a local trading card game shop in Seri Kembangan was allegedly scammed out of over RM80,000 by a “seller”.
Speaking to WORLD OF BUZZ, Eugene (pseudonym), who is one of the shareholders and directors of the company, shared that on May 16, he received a call from his friend Tim (pseudonym) about buying Pokémon items (SV10 Destined Rival series) from someone they both knew.
“By the time we figured it out, it was too late”
According to Eugene, their mutual acquaintance Kyle (pseudonym) told him that his bank account had been frozen and he urgently needed funds to pay his supplier. To return the favour, Kyle claimed he would sell the Pokémon products at a decent price.
“At first, we didn’t think much of it. We knew who Kyle was, where he lived, and he even showed us an invoice from the supplier he said he was working with. We checked with the supplier, and they confirmed a transaction was in progress,” Eugene and Tim explained.
With that reassurance, both Eugene and Tim decided to transfer RM86,040 to Kyle, who promised the items would arrive before May 31.
“But when May 31 came, nothing showed up. That’s when we realised we’d been scammed. Kyle had used our money to settle his own debts. By the time we figured it out, it was already too late.”
Many others were allegedly scammed the same way
Realising something was off, Eugene and Tim decided to contact the supplier Kyle claimed he was working with.
“Turns out, he never paid the remaining balance using the money we transferred. When we asked where our money went, he admitted he used it to ‘repay’ his investors instead,” they said.
As they dug deeper, they found out Kyle had allegedly pulled the same move on many others, racking up a total of RM252,210, constantly making excuses and promising refunds that never came.
“In reality, all he was doing was using money from new victims to pay off earlier ones which is a textbook example of a Ponzi scheme. We believe there are still many victims who are not aware that they have been scammed as well. “
In total, Kyle is believed to have scammed Eugene, Tim, and other victims out of RM338,250.
Victim 1
Victim 2
Victim 3
Victim 4
Victim 5
Hoping to raise awareness, they shared this message:
“We just want to warn others in the Pokémon and collectibles community to be careful. Always do your research and don’t fall for the same tricks,” they said.
As of the time of writing (July 9), no police report has been lodged yet.
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