Pizza Hut Racist!?
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Monday, 27 August 07 - 08:02 PM (GMT +08:00) By Lawrence Yong in Fraud & Spam!! |
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I received a forward recently about Pizza Hut Charges being discriminating, unedited as below (just bear with the English):
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Subject: Tax Charges at Pizza Hut (with proof)
This is serious if this is true. Guys if you can please check if true we should not condone this racist establishment and boycott it. There are alternatives. Remember Tommy Hilfiger who also is a racist pig ought not to receive any of our support.
A Shock at Sunway Pyramid Pizza Hut
Hello everyone. I have some interesting news. I was in Pizza Hut (Sunway Pyramid) yesterday and suddenly my friend showed me the bill. The bill contains normal things la (number of person, bill. number and what is ordered). But, what shocked me is that they had space called "RACE". I guess since we were all wearing tudung, they labelled us as 0, which means MALAY. Later, when we went to pay...we had no service charge and no tax charge.
Still in shock, I peeped into another bill in the counter. In that bill, under the race space, it was labelled as C (which I guess means Chinese). That bill had service and tax charges!!!
I started investigating. One of my Sri Lankan friends was labelled as Indian it seems and she also had to pay service and tax charges a few weeks back.
What I'm wondering is that...does anyone know about this? I find it rather strange that they charge service and tax charge using race in Pizza Hut, out of all the places!
WE SHOULD NOT GO EAT AT PIZZA HUT!
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I remembered receiving the same forward perhaps 2-3 years back, the e-mail then comes without the pictures as attached above. Since I got it again, I did some simple look up on the mail (with some help) and here is relevant result:
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12 June 2006
To Whom It May Concern:
RE: PIZZA HUT GOVERNMENT TAX AND SERVICE CHARGE
It has come to our attention that there is a malicious email alleging that Pizza Hut does not charge 5% government tax and 10% service charge based on certain race. We would like to unequivocally state that the email is a hoax. It is mandatory to charge 5% Government Tax and 10% Service charge for all dine-in customers. These are pre-programmed in our cash register.
We do, however, collate information of our customers, inter-alia group size and race, to better understand our customer profile and dine-in habits to serve them better. We hope this puts to rest your concern and we would appreciate very much if you would forward this message to all those that share your concern and those well meaning friends who have forwarded you the hoax mail.
Regards,
For Pizza Hut Restaurants Sdn. Bhd.
ROSNIZA BAHARUM
Deputy General Manager
Group Public Relations
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There were two sources: askforfun & Online Consumer Community (comments section), which has the reply above, so I guess the reply above is quite reliable. If you still don’t trust the reply, or really wish to clarify all your doubts once and for all, you can always contact Pizza Hut directly to get the verification from them.
So, anyone up for Pizzas? :D
Fraud!!!
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Saturday, 21 July 07 - 09:54 PM (GMT +08:00) By Lawrence Yong in Fraud & Spam!! |
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I was targetted as a fraud case victim recently, but instead of me being the victim, the hunters were being hunted without realizing it. Though I was a bit disaapointed that the hunt didn't ended with a kill, I'm a bit glad that I have at least gotten some usable information at the end of it, which I hope can be used for the final blow on the hunter (conman in this case). For more details, just read the report below:
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Introduction:
I have received calls recently which I think may very well be one of the fraud cases where the conman uses reward to cheat victims of their money. I have been trying to get hold of more details about the company by showing interest as well as giving my own details. Below is the detailed description of the experience and information gathered from the few calls I had with them. I hope that the details can help to identify the company as well as their modus operandi so clearer details can be released to the public to raise their awareness. Please do check on the company name that I have obtained, TeleSmart Communication Sdn.Bhd., mentioned in the “Observation” section.
Case:
1) Company Name: ProSent (保胜)
2) Company Profile:
3) Company Number: 03-8686 0020
4) Company Location: KLCC Tower 2 at 28th floor
5) Homepage address Given: www.pst3c.com
6) Other details:
- Received a call from private number around 3 - 4 weeks ago. A girl introduced herself as 洪惠静 (the exact name given, and she’s the one following up the calls until their “Activity Leader” took over) from
- Received another call a week later. In this call, she mentioned about their company’s promotional event that will be held on One-Utama shopping mall during Sunday (24 June if I recall correctly), where a lucky draw will be held. There will be around 1500 prizes to be won, all sponsored by their Hong Kong Business Partner companies. Was invited to participate in the promotion event
- Received a call during the stated time of the event itself confirming my attendance. I was told that I had won the lucky draw cash prize (fourth winner of the 5 case prizes), known as 创业资金奖. The prize was cash totalled at HK$ 300,000.00, which is around RM150,000.00.
- Since I was not at the event, I was asked to come to collect my prize money within an hour. I told them I could not make it and they responded that they will contact me again another time to inform me about the prize claiming procedure.
- Received a call again from 洪惠静 that requested for my personal details. The details that I have given to them are: Name (both Chinese & English), IC.No, Birth date, Bank account number and salary. Was informed that their acvitiy leader will call me more on the details to claim the prize.
- The follow up calls from here on were made by their “Activity Leader”, known as 黄仟惠 (this name is based on PinYin, not sure if it’s the exact name). I was given more information about the company and the prize money which I have won. She justified that the company is doing this kind of publicity because they think it’s more effective and save the cost of making commercial.
- The money will be transferred through 香港外汇银行, a so called international bank in Hong Kong.
- Explained the RM150k prize money was suppose be taxed 28%, but it was waived. The reason given was that since they’re an overseas company in
- However, to get the prize money, I will still need to pay insurance to ensure that the money will be transferred successfully. If there is any money lost during transaction, the insurance will pay the full amount itself.
- Two package on insurance is available, one is priced at 4% of the total prize money (non-refundable), which is around RM 6000 & the other is priced at 5.33% of the prize (refundable), which is around RM 8000. It was emphasized that the insurance company works with the bank on the transaction, and they have nothing to do with them
- It was noted to me that currently, the money is in a temporary account in the bank while waiting for transaction. I demanded for the contact and details of the bank, and was only given the bank’s 24-hour helpline – 00852 6525 9249. I was asked to call the bank up with some verification details to check for the account. I did not call the number.
- I received another call on the evening of 5 July 2006, in which she mentioned to me that she has discussed with the bank and the money can be obtained the next day at 10.00am, once I have brought the insurance that is.
- 黄仟惠 gave me her company hand phone number: 016-6072012, and mentioned that call her only within office hour as she will not pick up after that.
- I received a call from a different number 03-23821452 on Monday (9/7/07). The call was from 黄仟惠again, which in response about paying for the prize, I replied that I would like to forfeit the prize. She pressed on for the reason, which in the end I told them that I have called up KLCC and have confirm that they do not have an office there. So based on that itself I do not trust their company and ask for their registration number again. She was very angry and irritated with that statement and defended saying that that is not possible. She even offer to get me an air ticket to fly over and check up the company, which I rejected. She ended the call (hang up) by telling me that she is no longer in the mood to talk to me today and asked me to not taint the company’s name and that I should go check up on the company’s details again.
- I’ve yet to receive any calls after that call
7) Observation:
- When asked about their company registration reference number in Malaysia, they mention that they are still in the process of setting up the company here and currently do not have a registration number yet, but they already have approval from the local authority. As far as I know, this is not possible.
- Called One-U Customer Service to enquire about the event by them, but One-U staff was unable to give the info as they said they don’t keep track of details of event that has passed.
- Called KLCC and the staff there confirm that the office location they mentioned does not have such company as the whole floor is owned by another company
- Called the given office number: 03-8686 0020, but the number was engage at all the times. The number is a Time fixed number registered under this company called TeleSmart Communication Sdn.Bhd. (Reg.No.761421-H) which is located at Jalan Ampang. I am unable to get the exact address due to the usual phone company policies.
- The homepage is valid, but the registration for the homepage seems suspicious, no real company details are given and the homepage was only registered somewhere in June this year. (refer to Appendix A)
- When asked about the terms & conditions as well as black & white documents, such as receipt, they justify that each company has their own procedure in giving prize, and their company has opted to do everything to telephone, so no black and white is required. No terms and conditions are mentioned at this time
- The activity group head seems to want me to call her back rather than calling me.
- Insisted that the bank name is 香港外汇银行 and there is no English name for the bank. The bank name does not turn up in internet search results on list of banks in
- When asked of the insurance agency name, they said the bank is in charge of the insurance company, and they do not have the details. Yet, the money was supposed to be banked to that insurance company.
- Though I was given the bank’s 24-hour helpline: 00852 6525 9249, I have not called the bank yet since I suspect the call will only lead me to their partners in Hong Kong, which will probably verify what they have mentioned
- The company does not accept cheque nor cash. We must directly bank in the money to the account which they will give us later. Justification from them is because the money is not given to them, but given to the insurance company
- When I mentioned I want to come to visit the company, they say it was all right, but I have to make an appointment first since at the floor where their office is at, KLCC guard will only allow visitors with appointments.
- It was also when I mentioned that I want to visit the company that they made the call about “bank is ready to make transaction the next day” a few hours later. I suspect they are trying to close me before I visit their office.
- When asked about the account which I need to bank in to, they mentioned to bank into this person call Liang Mei Ling (this is by pronunciation, not sure if the name is exactly correct). When asked why isn’t the account under the insurance/bank, they justify that all this woman is famous finance industry figure in
- I am not able to obtain the account number of “Liang Mei Ling” as they refuse to give me until I agree to bank in the money.
- I check up the new number: 03-23821452 with Telekom, Maxis & Time but the search yield no results.
* For the details of the homepage mentioned above, you guys can check up the info at www.checkdomain.com or any other domain checking pages you know of.
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In case any of you wondering, no, I didn't get conned. And I didn't make the report to the police. Why? Well, since I'm not yet a victim, I doubt the police would take the case seriously, if they even let me lodge a report that is (I believe some of you have the same impression as me on this through your experiences). However, the report above sent to certain party, which I hope is enough for them to direct it to the right sources to catch the culprit/stop the operation.
Anyhow, the reason I'm sharing this is so that more people can be aware about this and protect themselves from such cases. So, please do share this with everyone that you know. I believe that if everyone is more aware of this, and will make the effort to research, record and report such cases, it will helps to reduces the cases that is going on in this country. So what say you?
P.S: If anyone have any information on the company, you can leave me a comment and I will add it to this entry. :D
*Updated on 12/8/07: It would seems that kennysia also have a similar case. His desciption on the phone conversation in that entry is exactly similar to mine, just that the company, name of personals involved (I can't believe they mentioned about accountant as well). Seems that both the company may be related as it involves the same modus operandi.
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