Enforcement officers seize 'Viagra coffee'

KUALA LUMPUR: A direct-selling company marketed a coffee mixture with a secret ingredient which guaranteed to "perk up" drinkers.

The secret ingredient was sildenafil, more popularly known as Viagra.

Enforcement officers from the Health Ministry recently raided the direct-selling company in Gombak.

A medical examination is required, along with a doctor's recommendation, before men who are suffering from erectile dysfunction are allowed to purchase sildenafil or Viagra.

A ministry spokesman said: "The coffee mixture had been distributed in sachets nationwide.
"Officers found 900 boxes containing more than 9,000 sachets of the coffee mixture which retailed for more than RM80 per box."

The company used individuals to distribute the product in small quantities to evade detection by authorities, he said.

"Investigations revealed that the distributor attempted to mislead the public by claiming that the coffee mixture could provide an energy boost, besides being beneficial for men," the spokesman said.

If a coffee mixture is sold at a higher than normal price then it is almost certain to contain the sildenafil.

"A coffee mixture containing the dangerous chemical is sold for between RM5 and RM10 per sachet compared with coffee mixtures which retail for between RM1 and RM2 per sachet," the spokesman said.

Sildenafil is a controlled substance because of the dangers it poses to those suffering from heart ailments and high blood pressure.

Those who consume sildenafil without a doctor's prescription run the risk of headaches, stomach aches, hearing loss, vision impairment and muscle pain.

Source: The New Straits Times

Woman loses RM19,000 to cyber lover

KUALA TERENGGANU: A 28-year-old woman who fell in love with a “cyber Casanova” lost RM19,000 after being duped into parting with her savings to help him start a business.

The woman had never met the stranger, purportedly from Ireland, and only corresponded with him via e-mail.

She had believed that the cyber love affair was genuine after he asked for her hand in marriage and pressed her to part with a sum amounting to thousands of ringgit, said to be for capital to set-up a textile business in Malaysia.

State commercial crime chief Supt Azmi Adam said the man had told the woman that he planned to have the business in the country to secure her future after they got married.

“The woman received an e-mail from the man on June 23 asking her to deposit the money into a bank account,” he said yesterday, adding the money was said to be for Customs clearance to enable textile materials to be brought into Malaysia.

Later, the man asked for more money, claiming that he had to pay a penalty of an equivalent of £7,000 (RM40,869) to the Irish authorities due to flaws in export documentation.

“The woman continued to deposit more money into the bank account, believing that the man really loved her and the business deal was genuine,” Supt Azmi said.

However, when the man keep pressing for more money, she realised it was a scam and lodged a police report at Jertih in Besut yesterday.

Supt Azmi said police traced the e-mail address and discovered that it originated from Nigeria. The woman had deposited the money into a local bank account.

Source: The Star Online

Be careful of ATM Scammers

FM: Received this message from a reader of a possible scam.

"Dear All,

I would like to share a real life story with all my friends and especially all my colleagues and all Aprilbank* (name of the bank is witheld to avoid my ass being sued) account holders.

This incident happened on today evening (1 April 2008). I went to the PJ State (Also known as PJ New Town) Aprilbank* to withdraw RM500. Unfortunately for me, only 9 RM50 notes came out instead of 10.

What happened was, one of the RM50 notes was folded exactly in half and placed at a corner of the stack (Please refer to the attached pictures showing how two RM50 notes can be counted as three).


I was so upset because I have no proof that the ATM did not give me the correct amount. After much hesitation, I finally decided to call Aprilbank* to complain about the incident knowing that I may not get back my money. But at least I can caution them of such incident. When I told of my situation to the Aprilbank* Customer Service Representative, to my surprise, I was informed that I ' m not the first victim. It seems that similar cases have occurred before. The lady explained that it is the malfunction of the ATM and the money may accidentally get folded in half. However when questioned, she was unable to explain to me why the money can be folded exactly in half and placed nicely in the corner of the stack.

I believe this is the new technique of cheating money, done by the people who are responsible of placing the money into the ATMs. In the stack of money which is to be placed into the ATM, one RM50 note is folded nicely in half, for every one note taken out of the stack of money. The folded RM50 notes are then placed at the edge of the stack and positioned in the ATM where the money would be counted. With that done, every one folded note would be counted by the machine as two notes.

I may be wrong about how and why it happened, but I would like to warn everyone about this incident. Please be careful when withdrawing money from the ATM (it may happen to other banks as well) and do count your money to be sure. If such an incident really happened to you (*touch wood*), please do call up the bank to complain about this. If everyone keeps quiet about this, the bank may be unaware of such incidents and the people responsible may just continue doing what they do without getting caught! Even if it is actually because of the ATM malfunctioning, the bank should know about this and there is also a chance of you getting your money back."