Agency still waiting for foreign workers

JOHOR BARU: A 49-year-old businesswoman who has been operating a maid agency for seven years claimed that two foreign workers' recruitment agencies have cheated her of RM33,600 which was paid to them to get foreign workers.

Nooraizah Muhadi, who runs a maid agency with her husband in Bandar Selesa Jaya in Skudai here, said she had deposited a total of RM30,000 over two days to a KL-based company named Syarikat Agensi Pekerjaan Cita Selasih Sdn Bhd via Public Bank on Dec  14 and Dec 15, 2010.

She said the money was meant for getting the biodata of five workers from Cambodia.

 "I have dealt with this company before, so I did not suspect anything.  I deposited the money after receiving a call from a man whom I only know of as Ben.  After I had deposted the money, I got my receipt for RM30,000.  

 "As I also run a maid agency, I know it takes time to get foreign workers, so I waited until the middle of the following year to contact the company again.

  "I managed to get Ben, who told me he did not have the workers nor the money to refund me.

  "After giving the matter some thought, I decided to lodge a police report on Jan 17 last year," said Nooraizah, a mother of four age eight to 25.

  Nooraizah also said that she had brought the matter to the attention of the Johor MCA Legal Bureau only now because she wanted to create a public awareness on the scam.

  "Even for someone like me who has been in the business for seven years can get cheated, so I believe others who are not in the same line of business will be more gullible and susceptible to such scams.

  "If the company is unable to get me the workers, they should not have asked me to deposit the money.  And now that they cannot refund me the money, then the perpetrators should be arrested," she said at a press conference here yesterday.

  Also present were Johor MCA legal bureau chief Wong You Fong, Johor Wanita MCA legal bureau chief Chang Mei Kee, Pulai MCA public complaints bureau chairman Neo Khai Beng and Pulai MCA division chief Low Teh Hian.

  In another case, she claimed she had handed over RM3,600 to one Hamdan Daud, 41, at her maid agency on July 13 last year, as Hamdan had promised to supply her three Nepalese workers.

  "To date I have not heard from Hamdan.  I have tried calling Hamdan as well as visit him at his house in Taman Pelangi Indah, Ulu Tiram, but I just could not get him," she said, adding that she then lodged a police report at the Johor Baru south district police station on Oct last year.