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WHILE many Apple fans got their hands on the long-awaited iPhone yesterday, one person is left feeling the pinch.
After coughing up a hefty $1,600 for the handphone, student Muhammad Hazrul Sani found out he had fallen prey to the latest twist to the Nigerian scam.
Just as con artists ask their unsuspecting victims to transfer 'banking fees' for non-existent, million-dollar inheritances, now they are 'selling' non-existent iPhones.
Hazrul, an 18-year-old Singaporean, was so enamoured by the new iPhone that he sold his PlayStation Portable (PSP) and handphone, borrowed money from his friends, and even lied to his mother to get enough money to pay a Nigerian cheat who had promised him the phone.
The phone never came.
When he saw an advertisement for the iPhone on the online forum hardwarezone.com two months ago, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic nursing student thought he had stumbled on a good deal.
After all, the seller was offering the phone at $350, a steal compared to the $1,600 that other Singaporeans were paying to get the phone from Hong Kong.
As it turned out, the bargain was a ploy.
Once he wired over the money to Ikeya in Nigeria, the seller kept asking for more, saying more money was needed for delivery to Singapore or that the shipment was delayed because the delivery man had an accident.
Hazrul sent more than $1,600 because after each 'delay', the seller promised to give him more freebies, such as another phone and electronic gadgets.
Hazrul said: 'I was so naive. He had given me so many excuses, but the alarm bells did not go off.'
He did not think much of it as he had bought goods on the Internet before.
To get more money, Hazrul lied to his mother, saying that he needed cash for a school project. He also approached his schoolmates with the offer of the second iPhone and gadgets and asked them to chip in for the shipping costs.
It was his mother who stopped him from bleeding more money.
Madam Romnia Ali, 53, a housewife, said: 'When he came back early that day, I just felt that I needed to check his bag. When I saw all the receipts showing that he had wired money to Nigeria, I knew that somebody had cheated him.
'Luckily I found the receipts, if not, I don't know how much more he would have sent over.'
Yet, she did not scold or punish him as she felt that it was a good lesson for him.
She said: 'Next time, he will discuss things with us before doing anything. I also pitied him, because he looked so sad. He had even sold his handphone and computer games for this.'
Hazrul, who gets $6 a day for his allowance, is now left with a meagre $9.73 in his bank account.
The incident affected him so badly he could not focus on studying for his exams. His friends are also pestering him for the iPhone, but he is still waiting for the right time to tell them about the scam.
Hazrul said: 'The cheat made himself sound so pitiful, even telling me how he needed money to feed his baby. Now I will think twice before buying things on the Internet.'
The police confirmed that Hazrul has made a report over the scam.
This story was first published in The New Paper on 23 August 2008.
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