[color=#666666]The Star, Thursday November 2, 2006[/color]

IPOH: Housewife Hooi Choi Leng was only a phone call away from winning RM300 in a TV programme broadcast recently.

For her efforts, she was slapped with a telephone bill ten times the amount she would have won had she gotten through.

Speaking at a press conference held by Bercham assemblyman Gooi Seng Teik yesterday, the 43-year-old Hooi said she became hooked on the programme, aired on weekdays between 4.30pm and 5.30pm.

“I thought I could easily win RM300 by calling in with the answer. But each time I called, I got a recording saying I had to try again.”

Hooi made over 1,000 calls in a month.

Her brother Mun Wai, 42, said he was shocked when the telephone bill showed that calls to the contest number had come up to RM3,312.

“Only after close scrutiny of the programme, did I notice that each call costs RM3,” said Mun Wai, who has lodged a report at the Bercham police station over the matter.

Gooi said he would bring the matter to the attention of the Information Ministry.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/2/nation/15895297&sec=nation