She worked as a clerk in an office, not well paid and not well treated, but there were mounting credit card debts to be settled. Yet she loved going to the malls and there was always so so many things she wanted to buy. Then this man came and promised her a hard to resist job offer with incredible money and travel to Europe, luxury dining, entertainment. She would start first by approaching people to sign up for (fake) ‘credit cards’, she would give the particulars of those who signed up to her boss. If she did well she could progress to other jobs like carrying ‘parcels’ to countries in Europe with free lodging and money to spend.

He was a regular at the disco’s and nightclubs in town, and very much hooked to the designer drugs (Ket, syabu) . Money was running out but his hunger for drugs, sex, street fashion and entertainment grew exponentially. One day his drug supplier told him he could earn easy money. All he had to do was to hang out at the ATM Counters at the Banks, when he saw someone put his card in, he would drop some money. When the victim bent down to pick the notes, he would replace the victim’s ATM card with another.

Each day there are numerous stories of scams, people being cheated of money, jewelry, criminal breaches of trust, money laundering, land titles illegally transferred etc. The NST on 4/3/10 reported that commercial crime cases rose from $845 mill in 2008 to $1.3 billion in 2009. The bulk of the losses were from cheating and criminal breach of trust amounting to $1.2 billion , while the balance came from cybercrime, misuse of property, forgery, counterfeit of money. “The reasons why people were cheated were due to greed and a lack of common sense” .

Criminals from syndicates were using more and more sophisticated tactics like impersonating policemen, Bank Negara officials etc. Criminals in syndicates are preying also on the greed, desire for easy money, unsustainable lifestyles (standard of living), habits of people like the above two stories and even people in authority, government to recruit and do their dirty work.

We need to pray for Malaysia at this crucial hour, when criminal syndicates have spread their tentacles into many spheres of our society, to the rich , poor, young, executives, the government, commercial, education, media etc. growing stronger and more influential by recruiting people in all these spheres of society into their scams. Many young Malaysians recruited by syndicates are in jail in foreign countries, caught bringing in drugs. Foreign nationals , syndicates (673 foreign nationals arrested for commercial crime) are coming in increasing numbers also to cheat Malaysians, finding many are so easily deceived.

Prayer Points

• Father we your children, repent of our greed , desire for riches quickly with minimum effort, which YOU said will bring us to ruin, our desire for leisure, pleasure, luxury and not the Word of God and the fear of God.
• Forgive us for not hungering and thirsting after righteousness but material things.
• Pray for the police , authorities as they continue to enforce the law and arrest individuals and those in syndicates involved in cheating and scams.
• Pray for clean, efficient, dedicated policemen and the Federal and State/local crime investigation Department and all other Government Departments who will do their jobs and serve the Nation above all else without interference and from being tempted by greed and lure of riches.
• Pray for Young Adults, Youth Church, Children’s church that they impart the fear of God , thirsting and hungering for righteousness to the young who will in turn influence their friends through their actions and testimony. To build a generation of believers who will NOT give in to the spirit of greed, mammon and cheating and lying.
• Pray for Christians who will, in the government, marketplace and neigbourhoods be a good testimony and a watchman to warn, prevent friends, colleagues from being cheated.
• Pray for the Immigration Department, Customs that we do not allow foreign nationals from coming into the country with criminal intent. That they will not be tempted by greed from doing their jobs.

Please prayer sit, walk or run at least 10 mins durying your lunch hour on Tuesday, 9th March.

Weng Hong

Note: Weng Hong is currently leading the prayer team in RunNat2010, connecting and gathering Intercessors from various churches and denominations to come together as one in prayer to God for our nation.