A 73-year-old woman from Georgetown was swindled of RM155,000 in an Internet love scam by a Nigerian syndicate. She was in fact the latest victim of the syndicate and which had cheated 110 other women over the past two years and getting about RM 1.35mil. The victims included teachers, a lawyer and an engineer who were cheated of money from as little as RM 5,000. The Nigerians had posed as a handsome British men, courting their victims, who were all actually single Penang women, through online chats, and they also took the time to get to know those women to win over the women's hearts and trust, sometimes to the extent of proposing marriage, Penang deputy police chief Senior Asst Comm (I) Datuk Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah said. After about two months of courting, the 'British men' conveyed their intention to send the women gifts in the form of laptop computers, mobile phones and cash in American currency. The women then received calls from a local woman pretending to be a Customs officer, telling them that the parcel had been held up for Customs checks. He also added that they told the victims that a penalty had to be paid and provided them with a bank accounts to pay the fine. After the victims had banked in the money, the 'British men' and parcels disappeared. It was said that the majority of the victims were aged between 20 to 50 and half of them were believed to be college and university students. The syndicate was busted last Friday when police arrested 11 Nigeriaan men and three local women in raids in two houses in Seberang Perai and Butterworth. Many things and money were found when the houses were raided, including two computer hard disks, two flash drives, six laptop computers, 36 mobile phones, RM849, US$1,546 (RM5,086), 1,000 (RM4.080) and 1,930 Nigerian nairas (RM41.45) were seized in the raids. The suspects are aged between 25 and 38, and some of the Nigerians are enrolled as students in institutions of higher education in Penang. SAC Tun Hisan said that from the documents that was found, they feel that there are more victims out there. He urged anyone who had been asked to deposit money in banks to come forward and assist police in investigations.
This kind of cases should not even be happening to women, not only in Malaysia but in countries all around the world. There are many cases that have been reported about online dating with one party just interested in wiping clean the other person's bank account or other such horrible incidents.In my opinion, women who can not find love in reality and as they get desperate to find one, they usually look for men in online dating. This case have reached a high point of popularity that virtually everyone has heard of but have not tried it. When it comes to searching for the ideal date that may eventually be the perfect partner for you, online dating has been considered one of the best moves. It's not always that romantic though, but there are still existing dating websites that could lure you to something bad without you realizing what you're getting into. There are many cases where couple who met in the internet have actually worked and now they are living happily with a family but also some can be scams. When I was in secondary school, when I was about 13 or 14 years old, I used to be a active user in the online dating, I used to talk to strangers that I did not know, but of course I have never told them my personal details. I guess when I was young, I wanted to fit in and make a lot of new friends, but now I have realized that some of them might be scams but even though I have talked to many people from all around the world, I was young but I still could know whether this person is actually interested in something other than just making friends with me for example, my money or he might kidnap me or he is a raper. If I know that they are actually trying to cheat me I will definitely pull myself away from them, but these women that have been cheated so much money, do they not feel suspicious that so much money was asked from that man? Maybe she will say that she was in love with him but it is so obvious that there is actually a catch there. Cases was found from a online dating stories, one of it was from a 33 year old divorced father of one. He and Sofiya had met online, he received an email from her through an internet dating site and they have been exchanging photos and e-mails to each other. After a while of them getting to know each other, Sofiya asked him for money to purchase an air ticket, with a total amount of $1,845 USD which he paid via Western Union. Then he received an urgent email request (from an internet cafe apparently) for $2,300 AUD to prove to the Embassy, her financial capacity to stay in Australia during the one month period. he did checked the immigration policy in Australia and we actually do have a requirement to pay security bond when application for visa is lodged in certain countries including Russia. He totally believed her and paid $2,350 AUD through Western Union and he waited for Sofiya for 3 hours at the airport with a bunch of flowers. Singapore Airlines later confirmed that Sofiya's original booking was canceled by a Russian agent and that she did not re-book her flights.(link) It is just sad that people can actually come up with a plan like that to cheat other people's money. Women and men should always be careful when they are actually using the online dating to meet people. They should always be aware of things and not falling into traps.
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