A DAP leader’s phone number was spoofed and used to send out messages offering RM3,000 per vote to delegates at the party’s special congress to re-elect their central executive committee (CEC) today.

DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said delegates have received such messages from various phone numbers, including that of DAP national acting chairperson Tan Kok Wai.

“This is not the first time it happened, where some spam messages were sent to our delegates using a device to spoof the number.

“This morning, (the device) used Tan’s number to send out the message, not from his phone, but the number is exactly the same as his,” Loke said to Malaysiakini at the special congress, which is being held in Shah Alam.

Spoofing is a form of hacking or deception that imitates a person, software, device or computer.

The messages being circulated are worded differently, but they are all in Chinese, and all ask the delegates to collect RM3,000 from the sender of the message as thanks for their support for DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

The message also claimed that this money is funded by Lim and Loke.

Dismissing the messages as fake, an amused Loke said he himself received a similar message from Tan’s spoofed phone number around 8am.

“I also received, from Tan Kok Wai. Supposedly from Tan’s number.

“Of course this is fake. Do you think I am able to give RM3,000 per person?

“You can ask any delegate whether they received money or not,” he said, adding that a few hundred delegates likely received such messages as well.

Such tactics are meant to create discord among their members and to destabilise the party, but it will not work, Loke insisted.

“They think this kind of tactic will destabilise (the party), which is stupid. DAP delegates are not so stupid to believe this kind of lie,” he added.

One of the delegates who received such a message is Ng Ah Hooi (photo) from Taman Tun Dr Ismail.

He received it from a random number at 9.44am. He later attempted to call the number, but no one picked up.

“I knew it was a fake (when I received it). RM10 also we don’t receive, now you say RM3,000?” he said with a laugh.

Such messages are meant to discredit DAP through money politics, he noted.

“It’s all rubbish. I’ve been voting for how many times and there is no such thing,” he said.

DAP is grudgingly holding its second re-election today on the instruction of the Registrar of Societies.

RoS had cited problems in the delegates’ list used for the first re-election in 2013, which DAP voluntarily held after an excel spreadsheet error affected the results of the initial election held in 2012.

This re-election would effectively reset the term of the DAP leadership.