ROMANCE scams. The modus operandi is pretty straightforward. How it works is that the scammers will use stolen photographs of attractive people and then use social media apps to strike up a relationship with you to build up trust before asking you for money.
Recently, a 65-year-old man in China fell for a romance scam where he lost 100,000 yuan (RM65,000) to a jobless man pretending to be a female university student.
According to the South China Morning Post, Feng met his victim, surnamed Xia, two years ago in an online chat room.
The scammer posed as a young female university student in her early 20s. ‘She’ told Xia that she was not feeling well and was unable to afford her treatment. Over time, the duo were in a relationship but communicated purely over WeChat over two years.
Despite calling Xia ‘hubby’, they never actually met face-to-face.
According to findings from the court, Xia spent a total of 32,000 yuan (RM20,760) on takeaway food for Feng and also transferred 70,000 yuan (RM45,412) for expenses like buying a mobile phone or paying for medical treatment and tuition fees.
Xia’s nephew grew suspicious of his uncle’s relationship and told his uncle to report it to the police. Officers arrested Feng in a psychiatric hospital and he has since been sentenced to jail for three years.
