My phone rang while I was having my lunch.

I picked up the call and was greeted by a man speaking broken English in a heavy Chinese accent.

“Good afternoon, is this Mr. Yen?”

“Yes, I am. May I know who is on the line please?”

“Hi Mr. Yen, I am calling ah to inform you of business opportunity with an Ahmerican company. I came back from Australiah and I am setting up a company in KL to trading with this ah company. May I know ah Mr. Yen if you are located in KL?”

I was kind of interested on what he has to offer but at this point things were getting kinda fishy since he did not introduce himself.

“Yes I am in KL. May I know whats the name of the American company and what is the nature of their business?”

“Oh, Mr. Yen ah, this company is called Global Xxxxxx and specializes in biotechnology, yada yada yada…”

At this point I was convinced that it was a scam and  didn’t really pay attention to anything he said.

“Would you be ah interested in joining me and my ahssociates in this business venture ah Mr Yen?”

I was curios on how he got my number and what kind of stories he would try to spin.

“How did you get my number?”

“Mr Yen ah, my business ahssociate pass me your number…”

“And may I know who is this business associate of yours?”

He was quick to reply on this, I’ll give him some credit for that but probably after many encounters with sharp candidates.

“Oh, my business ahssociate consist of a team of people! They studied many  candidates and ah shortlisted your name.”

“I see, and so where did your business associates get my contact from?”

“I am not sure, ah Mr. Yen. I just got this number from them. So would you like to find out more about the business venture?”

I didn’t answer him straightaway and continued to question him on his source until he choked on the pressure…

“So you are saying that you want to do business with me, but don’t know where you got my contact from? Can you ask them now?”

“My business ahssociates are ah not here right now with me so I cannot ask them…”

“So your associates are not around for information, you are not sure where they get their information from, you are not even sure of the credibility of their information and you aren’t even sure if I really am in KL and still you called me up to offer me this wonderful business opportunity with an American company, yet you fail to reveal your name and your associates contacts at the same time claiming that you came back from Australia but still speak poor English?”

Of course the last bit about the poor English was just rubbing it in but finally…

“Ah Mr. Yen ah, I believe our conversation is not click so thank you for your time.”

And he hung up.

Who in the world does business with people who do not divulge their identity or the source of their contacts? If you want to get someone to partner in your business at the very least tell them how in the world you got their number!

I am not sure if this guy is local or not but he really sounded like a typical China-man. The number he used to call me was +6012 268 5626.

He was probably targeting people who did not speak English that well hoping to switch to Mandarin later. My guess is he leeched my number from some of the events I attended or some guestbook I signed some time back.

So do not simply give out your contact information unless really necessary and always check for reference. It pays to be on the safe side :)

As for this guy running the con-job, all I can say is that he failed and miserably too!