I no longer dare to order food via Facebook, says pregnant woman who fell for tingkat delivery scam twice

A pregnant woman recently fell victim to not one but two scams when she tried to order tingkat meals. 

The 40-year-old woman, surnamed Lin, told Shin Min Daily News she contacted four caterers she found on Facebook to enquire about their prices on Nov 22. 

After some deliberation, she decided to place orders with two of them. 

Lin ordered a month's worth of dinner from a caterer called 'MamaDish' and paid $196. She also ordered two dinner bentos from 'Ci Xin Vegetarian Restaurant' and transferred $2 to them. 

On the day of delivery, she received a text message from 'MamaDish' informing her that their chef was involved in a traffic accident. The caterer asked if they could deliver the meals to her the following week, or if she wanted a refund. 

"Before I could even reply, they blocked my number. I couldn't find their Facebook page either." 

According to Lin, 'Ci Xin Vegetarian Restaurant' sent her a link to download an app to make payment for her ordered meals. 

"My husband entered his email address, phone number and delivery address [into the app]. He then went to the bank's website to key in his account details and password and received a one-time password (OTP) for the transaction," she said.

"However, before he could key in the OTP, his phone automatically keyed it in. He got a shock and immediately exited the app and the bank's website." 

Lin added that her husband also called the bank to change his account password to prevent the transaction from going through. 

"I'm pregnant and wanted to order dinner in advance, but I didn't expect to get scammed repeatedly. I no longer dare order food via Facebook," she said. 

"I hope others will be vigilant after reading about my experience." 

A quick check by AsiaOne shows that Ci Xin Vegetarian Restaurant is an eatery based in Kuala Lumpur.

On Nov 11, the restaurant warned customers of a fake page with the same name and lodge a police report in Malaysia.

The eatery also said that it does not offer food delivery services on Facebook. 

Preventing malware scams 

To guard against malware scams, the police warned members of the public in an advisory in June not to download any suspicious APK files on their devices. 

Members of the public can also take the following precautionary measures to protect themselves: 

• Installing anti-virus/anti-malware applications on their devices, and updating their devices' operating systems and applications regularly 
• Checking developer information on application listing, as well as the number of downloads and user reviews to ensure that the application is reputable and legitimate. 
• Informing the authorities, family and friends about scams and reporting any fraudulent transactions to the bank immediately.

READ ALSO: 90 cents left in bank account: Pregnant woman loses nearly $60k after falling for tingkat delivery scam

claudiatan@asiaone.com