KUALA LUMPUR: A woman is seeking to remove all traces of pictures of her husband's past plight from the internet after scammers misused them to commit fraud.
Moo Lee Yoon said that photos of her husband, Ng Choun Ying, have been posted online by scammers posing as charity organisations claiming to help their family.
Ng suffered a stroke and became paralysed in 2022 and had sought help from non-governmental organisations (NGOs), but has since stopped collecting funds from the public after receiving assistance from Yayasan Sin Chew.
Moo said that despite having stopped collecting public donations, old photos of their entire family are still being circulated online.
"We received a fee of RM2,000 from an NGO in Kajang that we first sought assistance from. After receiving assistance from Yayasan Sin Chew, we stopped all fundraising efforts as we are receiving a monthly payment from them to support our daily spending," she said.
However, Moo discovered that photos of her husband's condition, as well as images of their family, continue to appear in social media posts made by fake charity organisations.
These posts solicit donations to personal accounts, which Moo claimed they did not know who the recipient was and that it was not related to them.
She said that the scammers exaggerated her husband's condition in their posts, leading strangers to question her family's integrity whenever they were seen in public.
"The scammers have used our photos to fabricate stories, which has caused immense distress for my family. We are constantly harassed and called liars. Even my children have been targeted," she said.
She has since lodged four police reports and requested the removal of all her family's photos and videos from online platforms.
At the press conference, MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said that this is not the first case of its kind and urged the public to be cautious about the organisations they donate to.
"I hope the public will exercise greater caution and only donate to legitimate charity organisations with verified bank accounts, not personal accounts," he said.
Also speaking at the press conference, MCA Selangor Public Services and Complaints Bureau head and lawyer Ivan Tan urged the public to stop donating to the fraudulent charity organisations that were using the family's photos.
He encouraged anyone who has donated to these scammers to file a police report, regardless of the amount contributed, to aid in the investigation.
Tan also suggested that the government establish a mechanism, such as a website or mobile application, to help the public verify the legitimacy of charity organisations and avoid falling into scams.
"I also hope that after this press conference, MCMC will take action to remove all photos of the family and shut down the scammers' social media pages," he said.
Moo's ordeal was first reported by other news outlets in July this year. However, the issue remains unresolved, as the family's images are still accessible on social media despite the press conference and repeated efforts to address the problem.