Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Kena Tricked by Man at Used Handphone Shop

This is the letter i sent to TODAY by e-mail:

A couple of weeks ago, I sold my old Nokia 7260 handphone to a used
handphone shop at Hougang Central.

The person manning the shop offered to buy my handphone for $90. He tested
my phone using his SIM card after I agreed to his price.

He tested the phone by making calls, taking pictures, etc.

After testing the phone, he claimed the phone's access was blocked and
required a security code.

I didn't remember keying in any security access code at all. I tried
several access codes to unlock the phone but to no avail.

The man then said they would need to send the phone to Nokia to be reset
so the phone could be accessed.

He claimed that Nokia charges $25 for this service. As I was in a hurry to
rid myself of the phone, I reluctantly agreed to slash $25 off the $90
price he had first offered.

I didn't suspect anything fishy then. It was only on the following day
that I figured out it could have been the man at the shop who keyed in the
security code while testing the phone.

By doing that, he had tricked me into thinking it was I who had locked the
phone and he was able to slash $25 off the offer price.
I would like to caution those who intend to sell their phones to beware of
such tricks.

A seller can't detect such a fraud unless he stands right beside the
shopkeeper to see what he's doing on the phone.

Since no customer is allowed to step behind the glass display case
housing the phones to see what the shopkeeper is doing on the phone, he
might want to insist on getting the latter to position the phone sideways
so that he can see what is being done.

The next safe alternative is to trade in your old phone for a new one at a
direct retail outlet run by either M1, SingTel or StarHub.

16 Comments:

Blogger Bored Dad said...

Think you should reveal the shop's name and exact location, so prevent readers to patronise that 'black' shop.

Sorry to hear what happened, reported to CASE already?

Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at 8:17:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger chartao said...

you're wrong, this secret code stunt was applied to me when i'm trying to trade in my mum's nokia phone at M1 Bukit Batok.

if trade in, the new phone will be free, but it ends up we need to pay...

Thursday, December 21, 2006 at 5:21:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger JOEPSC said...

Have yourself a Blessed Christmas & Happy New Year, Mickell.

Saturday, December 23, 2006 at 12:08:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Mockingbird said...

To Leonard: Bloody conmen everywhere. Nowhere is safe.

Saturday, December 23, 2006 at 5:47:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Mockingbird said...

To Joepsc: Same to you pal :D

Saturday, December 23, 2006 at 5:48:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Fantasy "Sticky" Flier said...

Hey have a great christmas!!!

Monday, December 25, 2006 at 1:23:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Mockingbird said...

To Fantasy Flier: Have yourself a great Christmas too! :D

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 9:36:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger INVS 2.0 said...

Tricks everywhere. Where there are humans, there are tricks and cheats. You can see how underhanded people can be when earning dirty money.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 2:35:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Mockingbird said...

To Lao Xing Zhou: Yeah, tricksters everywhere. The day when Lao Xing Zhou becomes a powerful politician is the day when all these crooks shall die.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 4:25:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Helen said...

Sin 90??? Dang, if I know I should've asked you to sell to me lar!!!! lol

Yeah, there is a possibility that guy is not completely honest. Have you checked the Nokia forum?? My old phone (6XXX) has this feature in which whenever the SIM card is removed, they'll automatically ask for the password. You have to disable this function before you remove the SIM card. I'm not sure about your model lar....

Hey, greetings to you and your lovely family!! :-)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 10:47:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Mockingbird said...

To Helen: Why would you want a low-end phone like 7260 when there are currently so many higher-end ones costing only marginally more in the market?

I doubt my phone has this feature of requesting for a security access code after another SIM card is inserted in.

Greetings to you and your lovely family too! :D

Thursday, December 28, 2006 at 9:47:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Details: said...

What shop is this? It is really stupid of these guys thinking they can get away with it just like that.

Saturday, December 30, 2006 at 12:32:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger Helen said...

What low end??

Within my means mar.... lol

I cannot afford the latest tech, so will have to settle for less..:-(

Sunday, December 31, 2006 at 9:18:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger Mockingbird said...

To Paddy Tan: They have been getting away with it all this while. They need to be exposed.

To Helen: Gimme a five. i can't afford expensive hi-tech stuff. Have to settle for stuff within my means too.

Thursday, January 4, 2007 at 9:32:00 AM GMT+8  
Blogger dreamy princess said...

Mickell, Leonard: Complain to CASE and IDA. The more exposure such cheats get, hopefully we see a reduction of such petty crimes. It's all about increasing public awareness. Someone (not me) should start a blog and post all the tricks that cheats are up to. haha.

For instance, the cheat of magic stones is an old trick. Yet people still fall into such trick.

Why? It's about the FEAR factor. That cheats (and advertisers alike) use to toy with the human emotion.

Thursday, January 4, 2007 at 3:07:00 PM GMT+8  
Blogger dreamy prince said...

Mickell, you should report to the police as the guy is a cheater. The police will investigate and throw him behind bar for his cheating manners. It will be good to reveal the location of the shop.

Friday, January 5, 2007 at 12:48:00 AM GMT+8  

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