Assalamualaikum and hello.
I received a phone call yesterday from someone from Kota Bharu. He asked whether I know anyone by the name of Ahmad Shahril Haji Husin. I don’t know anyone by that name so I told him as such. He explained that he had received a letter in which there was a piece of paper with a photograph of the supposed Ahmad Shahril as being a person who had failed to pay up his debt. It also had his IC number and a list of people who are allegedly related to him. My name was in that list, complete with my handphone number and I was described as the brother to this Ahmad Shahril. Oh my! The caller told me he called me up because one of the listed name is his own brother though he and his brother also didn’t know this Ahmad Shahril. Well, I thanked him for letting me know about the letter and not to worry about it. I thought that was the end of it.
Later that day, at 6 pm, a cousin of mine called. He told me that he had received 8 (yes, eight letters) in his mailbox. All contained the same thing. A piece of paper with the picture and name of Ahmad Shahril Haji Husin and the list of ‘relatives’. I immediately went to his house to have a look at the papers. I looked at the picture an sure enough, it wasn’t somebody I know. As I read through, I noticed that 3 of the alleged relatives are actually related to each other, including myself. There is the name and cellphone number of my brother-in-law and also the nickname and phone number of my cousin. It dawned to me right then that the person who called me earlier about this was in fact the older brother of my cousin, whose name was in the list.
You can look at the letter by clicking the image below. I’ve blurred out some information.
Now, the questions are, who is this Ahmad Shahril and more importantly, who had sent these letters? Why were our names listed in the letter? There are a number of odd things in the letter. I was named as Ahmad Shahril’s brother but our dad’s name is totally different and I don’t have any half-brother. My cousin’s nickname was given instead of his real name (and this is only known by family members). The contact number of my brother-in-law given in the letter was an old number. We (I, my bro-in-law and my cousin) don’t know any of the other 3 names mentioned in the letter.
Are we a victim of an Ah Long’s scam? Should I make a police report in case anything happen in the future?
Addendum:
My dad had received 10 copies of the same letter. It seemed that whoever who had sent these letters had use this particular method, he first writes down the name of the recipient followed by the actual address of the recipient, and then for the next 10 letters, he uses the same recipient but only changes the number of the house.
Tags: personal · whatever
