Malaysian woman selling burgers for extra income during Covid-19 crisis gets pranked by 'YouTuber Jinnyboy'

Laughter may be the best medicine but the tasteless prank one 'YouTuber' pulled on a small business definitely did not amuse.

Joann Wong, the owner of a home-based business selling burgers, was stiffed out of payment for 20 burgers after a prankster claiming to be YouTuber Jinnyboy abandoned the order, her friend Sherley Yu said in a Facebook post on April 25.

The prankster had ordered the burgers to be delivered to Old Klang Road in Kuala Lumpur and requested to pay the RM140 (S$45.42) bill in cash, claiming that they "donno online banking [sic]".

But after Wong had prepared the food and arrived at the meeting point, the prankster shot off one last message before disappearing, writing: "It a prank I'm ginnyboy from YouTube u can eat all the burger [sic]."

Wong eventually donated a portion of the burgers to an orphanage and gave the rest away for free, Yu said.

Explaining that she had posted about the incident on Wong's behalf as Wong was afraid of being criticised for not insisting on receiving payment before delivery, a furious Yu added: "Do you think it's fun? As long as you are happy and can sleep at night."

If it wasn't already obvious from the prankster's butchered spelling of his name, Jinnyboy, who has over a million subscribers on YouTube, clarified in a statement the same day that he had no relation to the prank, appealing to the prankster to "stop this".

"This is obviously not me, and not anyone from the [JinnyboyTV] team. This is not funny," he added.

Speaking to Oriental Daily, Yu revealed that Wong had set up the burger business to make some extra income after the government's Movement Control Order (MCO) meant that she had to stop working at her day job.

Wong had not been suspicious of the prankster due to her "kind nature". It was also her first time running an online business.

Yu went on to clarify that she had no intention of attacking Jinnyboy, saying: "I made the post because I was angry about the injustice and wanted to warn others. I didn't know that there was actually a content creator named 'Jinnyboy'. In fact, I thought the prankster had made it up."

Fortunately, Jinnyboy took it all in his stride and has reached out to offer Wong "a token", he said in one Facebook comment.

He also took to Facebook to promote Wong's burger business and urged his followers to consider supporting her.

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/jinnyboytv/posts/2845858728863929[/embed]

As luck would have it, business has been booming for Wong after word of the prank spread across Malaysian social media, Yu said.

"I've witnessed the kindness and warmth of so many netizens. It truly shocked me… Thank you to everyone. Thank you for your help. There is still love and warmth among humanity."

kimberlylim@asiaone.com

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