Do you love me?

 

Intan is a 29-year-old well-educated professional. A few months ago, she befriended a Hong Kong man via an online dating app. After only a week of communication and text exchanges, he confessed his love for her.

Intan was surprised by his declaration of love within such a short time, however instead of questioning his sincerity, she chose to believe him.

Come week three, as their friendly conversations turned romantic, the man asked Intan to be his life partner. According to him, he enjoyed her companionship and thinks they would be perfect for each other.

However, there was one small problem – apparently, he was doing better than her, financially. As he wanted Intan to be financially independent, her beau decided to share his success secret with her – investing in foreign currency.

“Do you love me?” he asked her. “If you do, let me help you.”

Intan believed him when he told her that he was a millionaire and owned several properties in Hong Kong. She appreciated his intention of wanting to guide her into financial stability, so she followed what he asked her to do.

First, Intan was instructed to go to a foreign currency website. She could not understand the content of the website as it was written in a foreign language and fully depended on her beau’s instructions.

As a beginning, Intan invested US$1,000. Within a few days, the website notified her of the profit she had made. With the encouragement from her beau, Intan invested another few thousand US dollars.

As her investment was showing good returns, her beau persuaded Intan to use up all her savings and borrow money from her family to continue investing for her good fortune. She followed his instruction.

About two weeks after she had begun investing with the foreign currency website, Intan decided to withdraw some of her earnings - however, she failed to do so. The website notified her that the username and password she had inserted were wrong, hence her request to transfer the fund was denied.

After contacting the website’s administration and making a report, Intan was informed to transfer a sum of money in order for her case to be reviewed. She decided to borrow more from her family.

Upon transferring the fund, Intan received a notification from the website informing her to provide evidence to prove she is the person who made the investment. And for this so-called evidence to be reviewed, Intan once again had to transfer a sum of money. This time around, she began borrowing from friends.

When Intan repeatedly failed to transfer out her investments plus her revenues and was desperate to find more funds to get her case reviewed by the website, her Hong Kong beau suggested that she applied for a loan from financial institutions.

Intan went up and down several financial institutions before settling for a money lender whose advertisement she had come across while browsing the Internet.

According to the money lender, Intan’s financial credit check came back negative. In order to help Intan boost her financial credit, the money lender suggested that she pumped in a few thousand ringgit more – which she did after borrowing more money from friends.

However, her financial credit still appeared weak, and the money lender refused to process her loan – unless Intan made another few thousand ringgit of transfer to boost her credit.

‘I followed him like a sheep’

When Intan contacted me, she was utterly devastated. She had lost all her savings. She owed tens of thousands to her family and friends. And her Hong Kong beau of two months had stopped answering her text messages.

By the time Intan woke up from her slumber and caught on to what was happening, it was already too late. She had fallen victim to a romance scam, a fictitious business opportunity and a complex web of fake identity.

“I am so humiliated and embarrassed. How could I have followed him like a sheep? I cannot believe how I could get myself into this mess. I know better, I am smarter than this!”

When I heard of Intan’s story, I was shocked. I never thought she would have landed herself in such a mess. The Intan I knew was very wise, smart and technically competent. I could not fathom how a strong woman like her could have fallen prey so easily.

“I was lonely. It totally blindsided me.”

Loneliness has definitely been a pervasive theme of 2020 and 2021. With the changes the pandemic has brought us, many have become emotionally vulnerable. Working from home with fewer opportunities to socialise, it looks like Covid-19 has offered perfect conditions for romance scammers to prey on people like Intan.

Intan may be a victim, but as she picks herself up today, she continues to endure a lot of blame not only from family and friends who have lent her money, but also from people in her social circle who cannot seem to wrap their heads over the fact that a smart person like her is capable of falling victim to a scammer.

“How could this happen? How could she trust someone she’s never met?”

I asked Intan the same question.

“I can’t explain it,” she said. “You’re just kind of brainwashed.”

That’s what makes romance scams scary — the criminal knows what to do and what to say to weave a web of deception.

Intan has since lodged police reports but has given up all hopes of recovering her loss. She is now juggling between few jobs to return the money she had borrowed from family and friends.

And she still has not heard from her Hong Kong beau. - Mkini

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FA ABDUL is a passionate storyteller, a media trainer, an aspiring playwright, a director, a struggling producer, a photographer, an expert Facebooker, a lazy blogger, a part-time queen and a full-time vainpot.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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