JB Nail Salon That Shamed S’pore Woman Had Posted Wrong Number Online

Last Updated on 2023-05-05 , 4:06 pm

After a Singaporean woman refused to pay for a pedicure service at Nailash, a salon based in Johor Bahru’s (JB) Paradigm Mall, the salon made a post describing the incident and shared her Singapore phone number on Facebook to seek justice.

Multiple netizens were understandably angered by the post as the woman was reported to have refused to pay a mere fee of $26 despite multiple attempts by the salon to contact her.

In addition to not paying them for their services, the woman had insulted one of the salon’s employees by cracking a “deez nuts” joke when they attempted to contact her about the payment.

As such, many of them decided to join the salon’s attempts to track her down by contacting the number provided in the post.

This number turned out to be the wrong number and instead belonged to a teenage boy, who has since received multiple hateful messages that should have been directed to the woman in question.

Posted the Wrong Number

Previously, the salon had shared CCTV screenshots of the woman getting a pedicure in the now-deleted post.

A description of the incident was included in its caption, along with a mobile phone number that was reported to belong to the accused customer. 

The post was widely shared on social media in Singapore and Malaysia, and many people expressed their desire to help identify the customer. 

However, it was later discovered that the mobile number did not belong to the culprit in question but belonged to a teenage boy under 18. 

Consequently, due to the salon’s mistake, the teenager received numerous profanity-laden texts, threats, and scolding phone calls from unknown individuals.

Initially Ignored Calls Due to Wariness of Scams

In recent years, Singapore’s cybercrime landscape has been dominated by scam calls and phishing attempts. 

In 2021, there were 686 reported cases of such incidents, but the number skyrocketed to 2,106 in 2022, representing a staggering 207% increase. 

In February 2023, the police revealed that the “fake friend call” scam was the fifth most prevalent type of scams in 2022, causing at least $8.8 million in damages since the trend emerged. 

This type of scam involves fraudsters calling from an unknown number and pretending to be the victim’s friend or acquaintance.

In March 2023, three Malaysian men were extradited to Singapore from Johor Bahru for their involvement in a syndicate that targeted Singaporeans in “fake friend” scams. 

The syndicate had defrauded at least 40 victims and earned around $250,000.

As such, due to the prevalence of scam calls, the boy was initially reluctant to answer unknown numbers. 

The authorities have also conducted public awareness campaigns to warn against answering calls from overseas as they are commonly associated with phishing scams. 

As a result, the boy was even more cautious, as the hate calls he received mostly came from a mix of local and Malaysian numbers.

Wants the Harassment to Stop

After feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of calls that were coming in daily, the boy finally answered the calls and messages. However, he reported that parties on the other end usually said nothing but profanities at him.

The continuous stream of texts and calls proved too much for the boy to handle, and he eventually turned to his parents for assistance. 

The situation escalated when he received a threatening email with the email subject titled “O$P$”.

For those unfamiliar, loan sharks commonly use the acronym to intimidate debtors.

The email sender somehow got access to his address details and full name and threatened to disclose them publicly if he failed to pay the salon for its services. 

They also said that changing his mobile number would only encourage them to do so even more.

Fearing for his safety, the boy’s parents reported the matter to the police.

Unfortunately, the authorities only advised them to wait patiently for the harassment to subside. Desperate, the boy’s parents decided to cancel his mobile number and got a new one for him to end the harassment.

The Customer Eventually Resurfaced and Paid Salon

Still unaware that the mobile number did not belong to the actual culprit, many netizens expressed their disappointment as they could no longer contact the supposed culprit.

On the other hand, the salon could not assist the boy as they were also unaware that the mobile number did not belong to the accused customer.

However, on 18 April 2023, the salon reported that the customer who had refused to pay had come forward to settle her bill.

The customer claimed she had forgotten about the payment and only realised the situation after her picture went viral on social media. She apologised for her previous rude behaviour towards the salon staff.

The salon has since clarified that the mobile number they had posted did not belong to the customer, despite verifying it with a previous message where the customer had provided them with the now-defunct number.

Removed Previous Post and Encouraged Netizens to Stop Harassment

While the salon expressed satisfaction that the customer had finally settled her outstanding bill, they were still disappointed that she had betrayed their trust. 

Her misusing their trust was what caused the salon to inadvertently post the wrong mobile number in their previous social media post.

According to the salon, the customer deliberately gave them the incorrect number and only revealed the actual number she was using when she eventually decided to contact them to pay for her services.

The salon has taken down the post containing the innocent boy’s old mobile number and urged netizens to stop contacting him. 

They also appealed to the public to remove any negative social media posts related to the incident, which has now been resolved.