Love Scam: Virtual romance in exchange for cash?

SHAH ALAM – Cunning scammers use romantic words and false promises to deceive lonely victims into falling for their Love Scam fraud.

The modus operandi of the syndicate was to send random messages through social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and email in order to trap victims.

These scammers used fake account profiles and impersonate men or women to persuade and convince victims to fall into their traps.

The syndicate would begin to act when the victim responded to the message sent to be entangled with the suspect's love 'treatment'.

Many cases happened but the victims did not believe that they had been deceived by a criminal.

Revealing more about the case, Malaysian Cyber Consumer Association (MCCA) Chairman Datuk Ahmad Noordin Ismail said there was a case where a woman did not want to accept the fact that her dear 'lover' was a member of a fraud syndicate.

"Initially, the victim in her 50s did not believe that she was a victim of the Love Scam fraud syndicate because she was deceived by the sweet promises of her cyberspace 'lover'.

"This woman also believed that the picture of a handsome man that she met on social media was her lover.

"On the contrary, further investigation found that the suspect was an individual suspected to be from Africa trying to deceive the victim," he told Sinar.

He added that the Love Scam fraud syndicate would pretend to be professional individuals such as pilots, engineers, doctors, accountants and professors.

Noordin said there was an interesting fraud case that happened in Japan last year where the suspect claimed he was an astronaut.

"This case involved the suspect impersonating an astronaut causing a woman to suffer a loss of US$30,000 dollars (4.4 million yen or RM140,160).

"The 65-year-old woman get to know a man on Instagram who claimed to work as an astronaut at the International Space Station," he said.

He said that the media in the country reported that the astronaut told her that he loved her, proposed and would marry the woman when he returned to Earth.

The 'astronaut' then asked for money from the woman supposedly as a 'landing fee' and rocket expenses to return to Earth.

"The victim made five transactions to the suspect between last August and September amounting to approximately US$30,000, the suspect kept asking for money until the woman realised she had been tricked and made a police report," he said.

Noordin, who is the former Federal Police Commercial Crime Investigation Department (Cyber and Multimedia Crime) Deputy Director explained that the modus operandi often used by the fraud syndicate was to sweet talk and shower the victims with promises, as well as evoke sympathy.

"Victims were mostly those who are old and alone and want a company to talk to. They would be easily deceived by the tactics of the Love Scam fraud syndicate," he said.

Commenting on the case in Malaysia, he said, the syndicate took advantage of the generous and kind-hearted attitude of Malaysians and their willingness to give help.

"The Love Scam fraud syndicate always takes the opportunity to target individuals who have a generous and kind heart as victims.

"We can be friends in cyberspace, but when unknown individual talks about money, that is a sign that he is setting up a trap, if you do not stop, you will surely become a victim of a fraud syndicate," he stressed.

He added that the fraud syndicate also used various telecommunication lines to connect with and deceive victims.

"There is a Love Scam fraud syndicate that uses Malaysian phone numbers, but they operate overseas.

"There are also syndicates using overseas telecommunication numbers and the spoofing technique, but this technique is widely found in the Macau Scam case," he said.

Commenting further, Noordin said that the MCCA, which was established in 2018, acted as an intermediary between cyber users and the authorities.

"MCCA wants to create an atmosphere where users are more intelligent about the cyber world.

"We also make recommendations to the government for cyber security and help protect national sovereignty in the cyber world," he said.

Noordin said the community can take an example where victims had successfully cut ties with the Love Scam fraud syndicate when they started asking for money.

"Looking for new friends through social media is not wrong, but we need to always be vigilant towards those friends we have never met.

"As the relationship got closer, this 'new friend' would be willing to share problems to gain sympathy, we need to be careful of signs or a high possibility that he is a scammer," he said.

Meanwhile, a private employee shared a story of almost becoming a victim of the 'Love Scam' syndicate fraud last year.

The man known as Meor, 45, claimed that he met a woman through social media last November.

"Our relationship grew closer when she, who claimed to be from Sarawak, often got in touch via WhatsApp with a foreign phone number.

"The woman who also claimed to work as an accountant in the United Kingdom also shared a sad story by informing me her parents had passed away, she tried to convince me by being frank," he said.

Meor said the woman then claimed that she was in a divorce process besides garnering sympathy by claiming that she was traumatised and suffering from being abused by her husband for the past five years.

He said the woman involved said that she was often beaten when she reprimanded her husband's attitude of not working, gambling, lying and stealing.

The woman also told him that she was an only child and inherited her father's property and life insurance and informed him that her husband had claimed 50 per cent of the value of the property including their house.

In order to continue to deceive him, the woman in question dug for sympathy by complaining that she could not escape abroad because she had to hand over her passport to the court until the divorce process was completed.

"She (the suspect) was supposedly planning to move to another country after the divorce so that she can start a new life.

"The woman then asked for his help to 'transfer' some of her property to invest in Malaysia and wanted to give as much as 10 per cent of the value of the property as a commission.

"She requested personal details such as name, phone number, email, office or home address for the process of delivering the property," he said.

Meor said the woman informed him that the property would be sent in the form of US$500,000 (RM2.1 million) in cash before showing a photo showing the money stuffed in a bag, before being sent to Malaysia.

According to him, the woman also asked to donate five per cent of the money to orphans.

"She also instructed me to keep the matter a secret from other people's knowledge," he said.

Meor said the woman informed him that she had made a charge payment of £15,000 in the United Kingdom for the process of sending the package of money.

"She then forced me to pay RM2,950 to a company to release the parcel from being detained by customs in Malaysia," he said.

Meor said he then received a call from an unknown number.

"I did not answer the phone call after checking and feeling suspicious and was aware of the syndicate's cunning tactics.

"The fraud syndicate including the woman later blocked their phone numbers when they failed to deceive me," he said.