"Temple of prosperity" master allegedly cheats disabled man
KUALA LUMPUR: A man, who has been wheelchair-bound for the past 12 years, recently thought that he had a reversal in luck when he came across the master from a “temple of prosperity” who promised to help him win the lottery.
He was overjoyed when the man, known as Master Wong, said he would help him win RM1.5mil in a four-digit lottery game.
The man, only wanted to be known as Lu, said he came across an advertisement about a temple, which claimed it could predict the winning lottery numbers.
Lu, 37, telephoned the temple on March 21, and a man, who introduced himself as Master Wong, requested for him to buy a lamp to boost his prosperity.
“I banked in RM130 for the lamp to an account belongs to Chew Ah Kee,’’ said Lu, who suffered spinal injuries after he slipped and fell from a flight of stairs.
Three days later, Wong asked Lu to pay another RM100 for telephone charges to contact his “very powerful sifu (teacher)” in Thailand.
“He said the sifu would pray hard for me to strike lottery. So I believed him and did as he said. Wong then said he had helped me to buy RM500 big and RM500 small on one number and told me the next day that my number 8022 came out second in the Magnum’s Wednesday draw and I won RM1.5mil,” he said during a press conference at the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department on Tuesday.
He said Wong later sent him an MMS video clip of a man counting the cash to prove that he had helped Lu collected the money.
Convinced, Lu waited for the money to be banked into his account.
On Sunday, he suddenly realised that he had been cheated when Wong asked him for more money by claiming that a female ghost was stalking him.
“He said the woman committed suicide after I raped her in my previous life and now, she wanted to take revenge and kill me. He asked me to pay another RM6,800 to perform a ritual to cast aside the ghost’s grudge or he would give away my RM1.5mil for charity to wash my sins away,’’ he said.
Lu knew that he had been cheated and complained to the department’s head Datuk Michael Chong on Tuesday, who in turn said he would help Lu lodge a police report.
Meanwhile, on another alleged cheating case, Chong said he had received a total of 194 complaints against Andalas Travel and Tour.
The victims alleged they had engaged the service of the agency during Matta Fair and had paid for their respective overseas tours and had handed over their passports to the agency to make the necessary travel arrangements.
The agency was found to have not been operating since last week while only seven victims have obtained their passports.
