They then exchange photographs and virtual love letters for some time before the casanovas, usually claiming to be rich hunks from Britain and the Middle East, tell their victims they want to get them a real gift as a way of expressing their commitment.
In this day and age, it is disheartening to note that Malaysian women still fall for this "rich hunk" ploy. They truly believe that rich hunks have noting better to do, and have no other access to meeting women, other than meeting Malaysian women through online social media sites like Facebook.The only catch is that the women would have to bank in a substantial amount of money, supposedly into the account of a local forwarding company, as processing fee for the parcel containing the cash to be sent to Malaysia.
This is obviously a variation to the typical "cash in advance" Nigerian scam.When the woman begins to feel suspicious and questions her “boyfriend,” the e-mail stops.
Police say many women around the country, some holding respectable jobs like doctors and managers, have been victims of such scams. Thousands of ringgit is believed to have been lost.
Just because they are doctors and managers do not mean they are geniuses. I noticed that those with tertiary education are more easily duped compared to the average joes. Further, these women are the most lonely.
One example is a case in Johor where a human resource manager in her 30s lost more than RM30,000.
She befriended a person, claiming to be from Britain, via a social networking site about a month ago.Yeah, right ! How dumb and desperate can someone be to spend RM30,000 on someone she hasn't even met in person.
She met him on Facebook, communicates with him for one month and she's either head over heels in love with this cyber lover or desperate to receive the £50,000 "gift".
The next day, the woman got a call from a person, claiming to be from a forwarding company, saying she needed to bank in RM4,000 for the parcel to be delivered.
They continued to ask her for money – totalling RM30,000 – over a few days, giving various excuses including exchange rate and other expenses.
The woman suspected something amiss and when she questioned her boyfriend, he did not reply her e-mail.
She only suspected that she's been duped after the con man decided to flee ? Unbelievable.Bukit Aman commercial crime investigations director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun confirmed there were many cases of cheating not just via the Internet but also through SMSes.
He advised people, especially women, to be careful when asked to transfer money to those they meet online.
“We are checking to see whether local syndicates are working with overseas ones,” he said.
Please post your comments.
Football fans, this is how to be "a better fan, by being a better man" (those who watch football on Astro would've heard this).
First, you must be a man. And men, drink beer. If you like drinking Vodka and Coke, anything else mixed with Coke, or worse...you like drinking Ribena, then you should visit here.
Okay, since I've gotten rid of the potential puss*es, let me continue with how to be a better man. Real men watch football - with beer (preferably with friends and opposing fans in the land). So don't forget; a beer in your hand, makes you a man. A bird in your hand, makes you a wanker.
2. Annoy your opponents by shouting insults at them - show them who's the boss !
3. While the goal sequence is replayed, bottoms up upon chanting the name of your team
4. Crack the beer can
5. Chuck the can into the (preferably metal) bin making as much noise possible
6. Repeat step 1-5 again each time your team scores
7. When the opposing team scores - shout insults, make excuses and drink more beer
I was told that most Malaysians have already migrated from the "old school" Hotmail or Yahoo Mail to having Gmail accounts.
There are new finding that say you are rich or poor because of your genes. Read this article from Now Public taken from the BBC.The neo-cortex frontal lobes have long been associated with cognitive thinking because of its prominence in humans and almost non-existence in the lower animals
The issue of Nature~vs~ Nurture has always been a controversial issue in academic Psychology and it remains to be seen whether the difference is to do with environmental factors, such as quality of nutrition, prenatal care and levels of intellectual stimulation in the home, or whether the cause is genetic.Let the debate continue!
Normal nine and 10-year-olds from rich and poor backgrounds had differing electrical activity in a part of the brain linked to problem solving.
The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience study was described as a "wake-up call" about the impact of deprivation.
A UK researcher said it could shed light on early brain development.
The 26 children in the study, conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, were measured using an electroencephalograph (EEG), which measured activity in the "prefrontal cortex" of the brain.
Half were from low income homes, and half from high income families.
During the test, an image the children had not been briefed to expect was flashed onto a screen, and their brain responses were measured.
Those from lower income families showed a lower prefrontal cortex response to it than those from wealthier households.
We are certainly not blaming lower socioeconomic families for not talking to their kids - there are probably a zillion reasons why that happens
Prof Thomas Boyce
University of California Berkeley
Dr Mark Kishiyama, one of the researchers, said: "The low socioeconomic kids were not detecting or processing the visual stimuli as well - they were not getting that extra boost from the prefrontal cortex."
Since the children were, in health terms, normal in every way, the researchers suspected that "stressful environments" created by low socioeconomic status might be to blame.
Previous studies have suggested that children in low-income families are spoken to far less - on average hearing 30 million fewer words by the age of four.
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I disagree with this report albeit it being based on "science". If fact, its findings goes contrary to conventional evidence. You don't have to be a scientist to know that there is no correlation between being rich and being intelligent enough to create wealth.
We know that there are a lot of rich kids who are not particularly intelligent, neither are there many poor kids who are stupid. I think the rich become richer because of opportunities presented to them by society and the poor become poorer because of the opposite reason. It has nothing much to do with intelligence.
Lets do a simple yet self evident test to show that the above report is wrong (probably based on flawed data).
If you were to study the list super rich in the Forbes list, you'd observe 2 kinds of rich people - those who became rich through their own efforts and those who inherited their wealth.
Those who inherited their wealth have to be excluded from our test, as inheriting wealth does not show that someone is more intelligent than others; it is just a fortunate random order of birth.
Therefore, for more accurate results, we must only study those who became rich through their own efforts. In analysing these people, you'll easily see that more often than not they do not come from rich families, in fact, a large number of them come from very humble backgrounds.
Further, it is ironic that the above article starts with a quote from The Great Gatsby. In the novel, the hero Gatsby did not inherit his wealth neither was he from a rich family. He was a self made man.
What do you think ? Please post your comments.
Klatten didn't suspect that Ernano Barretta, 63, (Sgarbi's Italian accomplice) was secretly filming their meetings from a hotel room next door and planning to use this to blackmail her.
Read the full story here.
This kind of scandal happens everywhere but usually goes unreported.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------It seems that the underground vice industry is fast assimilating itself our multimedia industry. Don't be surprised if cheongster.com manage to get MSC status and a "cradle grant" one day. Who knows, right ?
I also won't be shocked to learn if Ah Longs (loan sharks) and pirated DVD vendors are already promoting their businesses online.
The Star reported recently that a restaurant in Desa Sri Hartamas suffered nearly RM100,000 in damages three men with parangs and sticks rushed in at about 11pm and started tearing the place apart, grabbing anything they could get hold of.
There is a good post on TechCrunch called "Everything you always wanted to know about Google but were afraid to ask". This post is actually about a 34-slide presentation on Google prepared by FaberNovel, a french consulting firm. Take a look.
It was reported in a local tabloid recently that a 26 year old man who visited a bomoh to ease a neck pain died when he was electrocuted with a home-made electrical massage apparatus used by the bomoh.
According to the police, the bomoh used the home-made apparatus which looked like pieces of metal with wires connected to a power socket. The man was then told to hold the pieces of metal and the bomoh turned on the power supply.
These days you can buy Google Adwords to sell anything. Even terrorism.It is of course not Google’s intent to sell offensive ads, but its just their automated ads - content targeting system that is flawed.
Please post your comments.
Barack Obama, the "Prince of Change", is set to be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States Of America. Some Malaysians believe that 44 isn't a good number. In Chinese geomancy the number 44 represents a "double death" (Sei-Sei, in Cantonese). But adding 4+4, you get 8 (Fatt, in Cantonese) - as Fatt means prosperity, it is believed that the number 8 brings the equivalent positive vibes. So, WTF ? (What The Fatt ?)
Don't know what to watch next ? Use this tool to discover what movies you might like to watch. Type in a movie you like and you will get a list of several other movies that are similar.
It is reported in the local media that the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs has launched Sikap Tulen IT Mall campaign to curb software piracy in IT retail outlets in the Malaysia's shopping malls.The campaign is in collaboration with antipiracy watchdog, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), Low Yat Plaza, famous as an IT and consumer electronic and software giant in Kuala Lumpur, and Microsoft Malaysia.
Today, with the internet, you can have access to world class education for free. There are many top universities that offer free courses online, these are, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carnegie Mellon University, Tufts University, Stanford University and University of California at Berkley, amongst others.
It has been reported in the press recently that two Malaysian women from Lim Kok Wing University in Cyberjaya had their intimate pics with their boyfriend posted on a blog. The pictures and videos were taken between 2004 and 2005.
[I think this reporter has made a conceptual error about the search results on Yahoo. While there is some co relation between search engine results and popularity of a particular term or phrase, this however, cannot be relied upon to determine its popularity. Search results for a particular term or phrase from search engines (in this case, Yahoo) does not indicate its popularity ie. it does not indicate the number of people searching for the term or phrase eg. "Jalan Alor". It just indicates how many references (ie. websites, articles etc) are found on Yahoo for the term "Jalan Alor". To determine how many people are actually searching for a particular term or phrase, you will have to use certain tools like Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly called Overture). From my independent research, there are only about 1,600 searches for the term "Jalan Alor" per month. As there is normally a huge disparity between search engine results and the actual number of people searching for a term or phrase, making an assertion based on such search engine results alone, can be highly misleading]
Datuk Bandar Datuk Ab Hakim Borhan said the move, which was planned three years ago, would give the tourist destination of Bukit Bintang a new image.
[How does renaming a street Jalan Kejora improve its image ? - As far as I know "Bintang Kejora" simply means "Morning Star", but so what ? How does this change anything ?]
Popular spot: Azmi (left) serving customers at his ‘Nasi Lemak Alor Corner’ stall along Jalan Alor recently.“Other roads in the area will soon have new names, and they will all be named after the stars to create the new image,” he said yesterday during a visit to a landslide site in Cheras.
The name change came to light when city hall replaced the road sign about a week ago. The Jalan Alor name has been in existence for 35 years.
[A street with its own "brand name" which took 35 years to nurture is about to be "re-branded" to something else, which represents, basically nothing !. Would Coca-Cola Corporation change the famous name of "Coke" to "Choke" or something else, just because they don't like the taste of the original Coke ? - change its name rather than its taste ? So, if you don't like your Proton car, just change its logo to that of a Mercedes ! or whatever that suits your fancy - why not a fighter jet (eg. a F-16 Fighting Falcon) ? I've seen modified (disfigured) Protons which propose to look like fighter jets. Malaysian creativity knows no limit, and shame - take a look at this, this and this]
City Hall explained that the name was changed at the request of the National Economic Action Council to meet requirements under the road naming guidelines and to go with other roads in the vicinity.
The MP for Bukit Bintang, Fong Kui Lun, who has brought the matter up with the Federal Territories Minister, said: “How can you change the name just like that?”
Name confusion?: Tourists (from left) O’Connor, Jack Coppock and Caitlin Coppock feel that the popular street should retain its name for the convenience of tourists looking for the place the next time they return here.
He said a search of Jalan Alor on the Yahoo! search engine returned more than 900,000 results.
[Even the Bukit Bintang MP, makes the same conceptual mistake about Yahoo search results as the reporter]
“You can imagine how famous this food haven is internationally,” he said.
Fong said that the area had taken years to establish its reputation and changing its name overnight was unfair to the locals.
“We want the name maintained,” he said, adding that he would bring up the matter up to the Tourism Minister.
Traders in the area could not fathom the rationale behind the move.
“Why must they change the name when it is already popularly known among the locals and tourists?” said Loke Yew, who has been selling fruits there for the past 35 years.
Trader Azmi Aznal said: “Even my stall is called Nasi Lemak Alor Corner and now City Hall has changed the road name for no apparent reason.
“Does that also mean I should change my stall’s name too?”
[Ahhh...now we see the real reason for the name change]
Several tourists have frowned at the move.
“The new name will definitely confuse some of us when trying to find the place in the future,” Australian tourists Jenny O’Connor and Caitlin Coppock said.
It is learnt that traders and residents have embarked on a signature campaign to stop the change in name.1. KLCC Signature
If you're ever in KLCC, you definitely must check out Cafe Milano at the Signature's food court . It serves taste pasta at an affordable price [prices about RM8 per portion]. A must try would be the Meatball Alfredo and Meatball Bologna. The food court opens from 9am to 10pm.
[Level 2, Suria KLCC]
2. 1 Utama
Owned by Jusco, this food court has a wide selection of dishes. From local picks to Japanese cuisines, it has everything that you crave for. The hot plate dishes seem to be all the rage now at the food court.
[lower ground floor - Promenade]3. Mid Valley Oasis
4. SS2 Selera Malam
In SS2, there are several food courts for you to choose from. There's the al-fresco Medan Selera [Malay / Mamak / Chinese roadside food stalls] and Selera Malam [Chinese food court] but are on opposite sides. At the Medan Selera, they serve delicious mee goreng and there are a number of Thai stalls that serve fried seafood like lala and O Chien (oyster omelette).
5. Lot 10
Lot 10 Shopping Centre is one of the oldest shopping malls in the city. Because of its strategic location (right smack in the heart of Bintang Walk), it is a favourite amongst the city folk as it offers a well-balanced shopping and dining experience. Try either the Thai stall or the chicken rice stall.
[lower ground floor]
6. Sungei Wang
On the top floor of Sungei Wang Plaza is a popular food court known for its reasonably priced food and variety of mixed rice. There are also several good Indian food outlets there if you crave for something spicy.
7. Hartamas Square
Hartamas Square established in March 2003 has since become one of the most popular hangout places amongst the younger crowd and expatriates. It has a good selection of eating outlets. Hartamas Square operates everyday of the week from 4pm to 3am on weekdays and on weekends they stretch it to 5am.
8. Uptown
It may take you some wait to get a parking lot here, but it is worth the wait. The hawker centre is over loaded with so many different stalls serving local as well as western dishes. You are spoilt for choice even when it comes to different types of drinks. The centre opens during lunch and stretches to 3am.
[Damansara Utama Commercial Centre]
9. Asia Cafe
This food court is a favourite among the college students as it is located opposite Taylor's and Inti Colleges in Subang Jaya. A must try is the wide range of sushi at Sushi Heng, on the left side of the food court from the entrance. Overall, the stalls there are worth checking out. [You can watch football and order beer here - its a college students' hangout]
10. Bangsar
Bangsar food court is famed for its Nasi Lemak Ayam although the price could be on the high side. There are two food courts in Bangsar Telawi - open air and indoor. Best time to visit is at night, either for dinner or supper as there are more stalls by then.
Source: The Star
I think Ming Tien Food Court at Taman Megah deserves an honorable mention. In fact, it should be included in the top 10 in place of ss2 Selera Malam.
Last year, AsiaOne reported that Mat Rempits have gone high tech and are using online networking sites such as MySpace to recruit new members into their gangs.This is an organised group, with membership fees and membership cards. Fees range from RM10 to RM30 depending on the chapter you join. So this is not mickey mouse gang, folks ! it is a real criminal organisation.
Once a person joins the gang, he is given a membership card and a sticker to be attached to his kapcai or whatever motorbike he is riding to display his affiliation to the gang.
Interested in doing business through the internet ? The NST has an interesting story about this:
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This festive season opens up a myriad of business opportunities for individuals and companies alike – more so now with the boundless reach of the Internet.
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| Rozita’s big dream is to have her cookies in all stores and made accessible to all Malaysians. |
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| Rosman says the company’s strength is that its gifts are thematic for each season or festival and never repeated. |
Raya delights on the web
Stories by Rozana Sani
HARI Raya cookies have always been in Rozita Abdul Kader’s blood. Her late mother was known for making the home-made delights, and the skill has since been passed on to her.
With encouragement from close friends, Rozita has for some
12 years produced cookies and conducted baking classes from her base in Klang, Selangor.
Initially, she sold her products to friends, colleagues and those who attended her baking classes, which were either held at her house or the students’ premises. Then, earlier this year, she decided to take the bold step of becoming a full-time entrepreneur, with Net presence as a key strategy.
“I got the inspiration to create www.ita-delight.com from the company that I was previously employed with. The company had set up a Web site to introduce its presence to the world. When the company became successful, I was forced to make a decision whether to remain as an employee or to become self-employed,” she says.
Rozita decided to do it alone. But first, she prepared herself by doing some research on online businesses by surfing the Internet.
“Much to my surprise, my Ita-Delight products have already been listed on several Web sites under the Biskut Raya category. I looked around online and found a company which manages Web sites for those who did not have knowledge in IT like me,” she shares.
Soon after, Rozita had Ita-Delight.com up and running, and is now successfully hitting sales in places as far as Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.
“Once I started making sales through online means, I let go of my position in the company and became truly self-employed. I also felt ready with my skills to expand my baking classes to a few States outside Selangor,” she says.
Elaborating on Ita-Delight.com, Rozita says the local company she hired to develop the site also has experience in worldwide Internet marketing.
“I have been using their services for Web site management and Internet marketing solution. The cost of conducting business over the Web is not only affordable, but also easy.”
She highlights with pride that she can now update the baking class schedules in the site’s Calendar feature herself, apart from adding and editing the site’s content, uploading pictures in the gallery and sending newsletters to registered members.
She can also relay short messages and respond to queries through the chatbox.
“The most important feature of my Web presence is the e-commerce system. It is capable of receiving orders of every type of cookies that I have, and can automatically calculate the postage rates according to our local shipping provider based on the order quantity, weight and the customer’s address. The way the system works has really helped me to organise my customers’ orders,” she says.
Ita-Delight.com is now six months old.
“For the first three months, the site had some 120 hits per day. There were more visitors each time we made an advertisement through the e-mail group or local newspaper,” Rozita says.
She continued to retain the services of her Web consultant after the three-month period.
“Now, my Web visits can reach up to 400 in one day. I can say about 80 per cent of my Biskut Raya sales are made through my Web site, either by online order or e-mail. Therefore, the Internet is the main channel of my business now,” she says.
Rozita’s big dream is to have her cookies in all stores and made accessible to all Malaysians.
“My Web consultant is planning to market the Ita-Delight cookies worldwide. This means people from outside Malaysia can also use our Web presence to order Ita-Delight cookies in the near future.”
A GIFT FROM THE HEART
THE act of sending a gift is a sure-fire way to strengthen a relationship, what more in the months of Ramadan and Syawal. And the gift should be chosen with care so the recipient knows it is given from the heart.
This is where Pods & Petals’ Giftlab
(M) Sdn Bhd (PPG) comes in. In its sixth year of operations, the company prides itself as a trend-setting gift and delivery company specialising in hampers, food baskets, gifts and flowers – all of which can be either ordered through the Internet, fax, phone or personally.
“Our strength is that our gifts are thematic for each season or festival and never repeated. We take the time to handpick each item for all our products. Where we are not able to service customers, we are represented by our associates who adhere to our strict quality control,” says PPG’s sales director Rosman Jasmi.
For Ramadan and Syawal this year, the company has gone Middle Eastern with delicacies, hampers and gifts themed as such. Highlights include a certified ceramic Turkish serving plate and embroidered Syrian tablecloths that could be given pre-Raya or during the open house season in Syawal.
“Our whole portfolio can be viewed at our online boutique at www.gift-lab.com. If customers are at a loss as to what they want to pick, they can click on our Gifting Tips button for ideas.
“Our customer service team will call up our customers who have made their orders online or via fax to make sure the gifts chosen are truly what they want and according to their specifications before proceeding with delivery,” Rosman says.
PPG’s delivery area covers all States within Malaysia and countries such as Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
“For Hari Raya, we have for the past years received online orders from Malaysians residing overseas who want to send goodies to their friends and relatives in Malaysia. We are also receiving requests to send hampers to more countries abroad,” Rosman says.
He adds that PPG has secure servers that ensure all payment transactions made on its Web site are safe.
“This means you pay nothing if unauthorised charges are made to your card as a result of shopping at PPG. Any information provided to us will be respected as privileged information and will remain absolutely confidential. Other than credit cards, we provide the convenience of online banking payment and mobile payment.”
According to Rosman, the online channel has been factored in from the day PPG launched into business. To date, the company has spent a sum in the six figures to continuously update and maintain its computer system.
“Our online channel contributes approximately 30 per cent to the total business; the remaining 70 per cent comes from corporate sales. Last year, during the Hari Raya-Deepavali twin festivities, we hit around 1.5 million orders in total,” Rosman says.
Not resting on its laurels, PPG is set to launch mylittletail (www.mylittletail.com) after next month. Mylittletail is a new service for expectant and seasoned parents to assist in baby announcements, full moon celebration giftpacks and birthdays.
“It’s not just restricted to the Chinese community, but can be applied to events like Malay’s Cukur Jambul and such events in the Indian community,” Rosman says.
Bargains aplenty
WHEN it comes to celebrating Aidilfitri, shopping malls are not the only places where you can look for a bargain. Great deals are available online as well, if you know where to go. Siti Syameen Md Khalili offers some clues.
GREETING CARDS
•At www.kreatifaktif.com, you can order custom-made Raya cards at attractive prices starting from RM2 per piece. There are templates to choose from, and you can even add your name or the company logo into the design.
The minimum order is 100 pieces, so you might want to omit details such as year or date so you can use the excess supply next year.
The proprietor of the Web site, Kreatif Aktif Media, is a graphics designer company offering digital fast print services for making business cards, flyers, postcards, wedding invitations as well as customisation of souvenir items.
For Raya, the company is offering over 40 Raya card designs in multiple sizes.
CLOTHING
•At Mawar Aksesori (mawaraksesori.blogspot.com), you can order and buy kebaya, baju kurung and baju melayu of the latest styles. The baju kurung offered are the latest imported from Indonesia while textile offerings include silk and Thai silk. You can order and make retail or bulk purchases.
CAKES AND COOKIES
•Ellie Darus, who sells cupcakes online, offers special promotions for the 2008 Aidilfitri. Through her online business, de HearT Cupcakes (kekcawan.blogspot.com), she shares information such as the types of cakes available for booking, booking date, delivery schedule and delivery service details.
Apart from using the blog, she makes use of her list of contacts to send the promotion materials through e-mail. For the upcoming Raya, de HearT Cupcakes’ offerings include Cupcakes Gift Set, Mini Choc Cake Ball and Chocolate Truffle Tart.
HOME ITEMS AND WARDROBE PIECES
•Members of e-Bay Malaysia who are looking forward to beautify their home can log on to www.ebay.com.my to shop for furniture, bedding and even gardening items.
You can spruce up your lawn before that Raya BBQ session with plants, too. Apart from that, kebaya, baju kurung, fabric and textile pieces are available.
If you are not a member yet, this festive season might be a good time to start.
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