This is a story of a woman, who is a single child who found out that her parents lost their entire life savings over scams, and now she has to take over the burden of caring for them.
The thing that they don’t tell you about having parents, is that sometimes they sabotage your future and the path is filled with good intentions. My parents both worked for the government, my mother a teacher and my father was a medical officer. They both earned a decent salary that allowed us to put food on the table, they could buy a house and two cars as well as send me to a local university. They also had a decent amount of savings that could sustain themselves well after their retirement, since they already had a paid off house in Pahang, where I grew up.
The internet and scam era has truly ruined my life, even though I was born with the internet. I blame my parents’ naivety for all of it, on top of the scammers themselves.
It started with a supplement MLM
For context my parents had me, an only child when they were pretty old. My dad was 48 and my mom 42. I was always the kid with the oldest parents growing up, but I truly didn’t realize how much it would ruin my life. When I was young, around 12, I remember my parents were in a side hustle where they would sell supplements to friends and family. Of course back then I didn’t know that it was an MLM, only finding out recently. Back then, it was just a part of their job.
My dad, being a medical officer, was trusted by family and friends for his medical opinion, and many relatives would buy from my dad. I remember because we used to get boxes and boxes of supplements delivered to our house, and my dad would invite people over, often even strangers to come and listen to him talk and sell these pills.
After a while, it all suddenly stopped and life moved on. My dad sold one of his cars, and we had the one car that he and my mom would share. Of course being 12, no one told me anything at that time. I later found out that all the supplements my dad bought were counterfeit. He didn’t know about it, and trusted his “upline” who was also doing the same thing. News broke out, and suddenly everyone was coming to my dad for a refund. He later told me that he sold his car to pay everyone off, because there were many people threatening to sue my dad. When I asked him why he didn’t go to the company that sold it to him, he said they were based in China, and were hard to get hold of. Just like that, he lost his car overnight, but he did his best to repay everyone back.
The fruit scammer
The story of the fruit scammer is how my parents lost RM50,000 of their savings, withdrawn from their EPF. Like the tale as old as time, someone approached my parents when I was about 18, and presented an opportunity so good they couldn’t say no. They offered my parents ownership in a massive fruit farm in China, and they would get returns every month. The investment started with RM10K, and they got a 10% return every month. They withdrew the first month’s return with success, and were convinced that this was a lucrative way to make money fast. I was just entering university and my parents would not listen to me, despite me trying to warn them of similar scams I had seen online. Since they could cash out their returns after a month, they were immediately convinced. Right away, they put in RM50,000 in that investment.
Within 3 months, they realized they were scammed. No line of contact, no communication, and no way to legally approach this as it was an agreement with a company in China, which of course, was through a contact that was unofficial. I was furious when I found out, but being 18, they berated me saying that since it was not my money I shouldn’t make so much noise and that when I’m older I will understand.
The government scam
This was the worst scam and it effectively ruined my life. Even thinking about it pisses me off so much. The worst part of it all, my parents never learnt from their mistake. They also never came to me, to check with me what my opinion is. They still see me as a child that knows nothing, and it costs them and me.
This scam involved a party claiming to be from the government, and they approached my dad calling for a meeting because there was an issue with the ownership of the house. They claimed that the names were still in the old owner’s name and officially the house didn’t belong to my dad.
My dad, wanting to not worry my mom or me, never told us anything while all of this was happening and was trying to sort it out. The scammers were patient and diligent, knowing many of my dad’s personal information like his name, address and IC number. They convinced my dad he needed to “sell” the house to a shell company and the house deed would be transferred to him after that. Many of these meetings were held in coffeeshops and mamaks, over the span of 6 months. All throughout this time, I knew nothing about it.
I found out a year later, because my parents kept receiving letters in the mail about evicting the house as it didn’t belong to them, sent from a law office. I saw it a couple of times, but chucked it up to the latest scam as I have long known that we owned the house for many years now.
Then one day, my dad received a court order. He asked me to check if it was a real letter. I got my lawyer friend to check and that is when the truth started to spill. Mind you, I didn’t find out about everything immediately, but it would be bits and pieces of information that I had to put together. For the longest time I thought it must be a mistake because of course the house would not have been sold.
Long story short, the sale of the house was legitimate, and was for a sum of RM10,000, which was deposited to my dad when he signed the papers over, and he had already spent the money. In the eyes of the law, it was not a scam because the sale was by the books and my dad took the money and used it too.
I am paying the price
Ever since my parents lost their home and had to move out, I have had to help them with their monthly rent at a new place. Not only was it traumatic to lose my childhood home, but the way it happened was hard. My mother was adamant she wanted to use this chance to move to KL, to be close to me, and she begged for a landed property with a garden so she could grow her plants that she loved so much.
Now, every month, I am taking care of their expenses, and it’s weighing down on me. I can’t quit my job, I can’t move and I can’t be risky with my life. All because of my parents’ mistake.
Submit your story to ym.efillaerni@olleh and you may be featured on In Real Life Malaysia.
Read also: ‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman – In Real Life
https://inreallife.my/i-gave-up-my-family-to-pursue-my-dreams-shares-34-yo-msian-woman/
‘I gave up my family to pursue my dreams’ Shares 34 YO M’sian woman
More from Family Relationships
“One Toast Split Our Reunion Into Two Tables,” shares M’sian cousin
This story is a follow up to a user submitted story from 2025, about what happened when the family finally …
“Cancer took Papa from me twice,” shares grieving M’sian Daughter
I was an only child. Mama died in a car accident when I was 13, and Papa became both parents …
“I Won’t Leave Her,” shares M’sian man facing family ultimatum
My girlfriend was living with HIV before we started dating. She didn’t hide it. She told me when we were …
