Youths duped by scammers in attempt to convert eBeliaRahmah credit to cash

KUALA LUMPUR - In their attempt to convert the eBeliaRahmah credit to cash, some youths fell victim to fraudulent activities by certain parties allegedly offering the "service” on social media.

A university student known as Nur, 20, is one of the victims who lost the RM200 credit in the blink of an eye after falling prey to the fake service she found on Twitter.

Recounting her bad experience, Nur said she needed cash to pay her tuition fees as she had not received a student loan, and to help cover her daily expenses.

And since she could not transfer the funds credited to her e-wallet into her bank account, Nur then searched on Twitter for an alternative method to convert them to cash, only to end up losing the money.

"I looked up ‘ebelia service’ and ‘ebelia cash’ (on Twitter) and found that many people had done the same thing,” she recalled.

Nur later found a user who claimed to offer the service and contacted him to carry out the transaction.

"Later that night, after I had transferred the eBelia credit to him, he shared a screenshot with me and told me that the system was busy and that he could not transfer the money to my account.

"It never occurred to me that he was a scammer, as he provided proof on Twitter that he had helped many people,” she said.

The student only realised she had been cheated when the man’s Twitter account was deactivated the next day and she still had not received the money in her bank account as promised.

Meanwhile, a public university student known as Sophia, 19, said she knew that some of the university students had converted the eBeliaRahmah credit to cash.

"This is because they need cash to buy things and they have to pay RM10 for the service. (However,) they only seek help from people known for the service to avoid being scammed,” she said.

A Bernama check found many advertisements have been flooding social media platforms offering to convert the eBeliaRahmah credit to cash, with varying fees of up to RM15 per transaction or even free of charge.

Unfortunately, besides Nur, several other recipients have reported being scammed by this scheme, as they never received the promised money in their bank accounts.

The Finance Ministry, in a written reply to Bernama, also confirmed the fraudulent activities involving the eBeliaRahmah programme.

The eBeliaRahmah programme is a government initiative announced in Budget 2023 to promote cashless transactions and ease the financial burden of youths aged 18 to 20 and full-time university students.

The government started disbursing the RM200 aid to beneficiaries from Monday, which can be used at premises that offer e-wallet services such as Boost, Setel and Touch N Go eWallet.

The terms and conditions of the programme state that the RM200 credit cannot be converted into cash or transferred to other accounts and action will be taken against recipients found to do so. - BERNAMA