Beware of Scam

As i read the newpaper from Singapore, i thought i should highlight some pointers for people who may be easily duped. As recently one of my friend, was cheated from some internet house rental scam, another of my friend was almost sucked into a fraud scam. She applied for a job which only required her to get money from travellers cheque posted to her from banks. Thank God, the bank stuff was alert enough to know that the cheque was a fraud

There is one thing we always need to know - if something is too good to be true it always is. There is often no free lunches in this world. If anything seems different from what you have done for the best part of your life. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CHECK WITH OTHERS.

Any thing that requires you to part with money, please make sure that you check with a few people. There will always be scammers out there, so we need to always be more cautious. Below is a report i read from newpaper.

NEWPAPER

WHEN a Singaporean woman went online in search of a life partner, she received several offers of marriage.

FISHY: News of so many scams put MsJosephine on the alert. TNP PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: GAVIN FOO

But it was not wedding bells but alarm bells that went off in her head.

The reason: The proposals were from men in Nigeria.

And, rightly or wrongly, the mere mention of the African nation summons visions of scams.

The woman, a 47-year-old accounts executive who wanted to be known only as Josephine, is sure her suitors are con men targeting lonely women with false promises of love and marriage.

They claimed to be expatriates working in the oil industry in Nigeria but asked her to send them money so they could come to Singapore to marry her.

Ms Josephine recently posted her profile on the Singapore Expats forum, hoping to find a man who could commit to a long-term relationship and eventually marry her.

But when she received six e-mail replies from different men in Nigeria, each promising marriage, she became suspicious.

She said: 'If I had never heard of so many scams from Nigeria, I would have been thrilled.

'I have never been popular with men and most don't take a second look at me. So, when so many guys were interested in me and telling me how much they loved me by their third e-mail, at the back of my mind, I found it unbelievable.'

'Widowers'

First, these 'widowers' wooed her with poems and showed her pictures of their children. They also spun heart-wrenching tales of how their wives had died during childbirth and told her that she was 'the perfect mother' for their children.

Of course, she had no idea whether the pictures were real. But the stories, because they were so similar, got her suspicious.

Within days of getting to know her, they would ask her for money. Most asked her to send sums ranging from $2,000 to $3,000.

One asked her to buy him a laptop and ship it to Nigeria.

The most frightening request was from a man who went by the name of Houston. He claimed he was from the Cayman Islands and asked MsJosephine to open a bank account in Singapore so that he could transfer millions of dollars to her.

With wide-eyed horror, she said: 'He could have been trying to use me to launder money.'

Even if she were unaware of Nigerian scams, Ms Josephine said she would not have fallen victim as she finds it 'too difficult to part with her hard-earned money'.

Emotional blackmail

When she did not accede to their requests, the men resorted to 'using four-letter words' on her or emotionally blackmailing her by asking her to send the money for the sake of their children.

One even went as far as to call himself her husband.

Laughing, Ms Josephine said: 'We haven't even met, and he's saying that he is my husband.

'They must have thought that I was one of those airheads whose heart would melt the moment they said they loved me and give them all my money.'

Although she had mentally prepared herself for fake offers, it was still 'devastating' that every suitor ended up asking her for money.

Her sister, Mrs Elaine Wee, 45, said: 'This is the cruellest thing that anyone can do to a single woman. I was so indignant for not only my sister, but all the other women that these men were out to cheat by playing with their feelings.'

Ms Josephine, who has spent about $8,000 on local and foreign matchmaking agencies, has one simple wish: To find a nice, honest man she can go home to after a hard day's work.

Smiling, she said: 'Somewhere out there, there might be someone for me. I'm not going to just give up.'

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SAME CON, NEW TWISTS

iPHONE TWIST

Conmen post advertisements on the Internet to sell iPhones, but unsuspecting buyers end up empty-handed after sending the money. A Singapore student was cheated of $1,600.

EPL TWIST

They pretend to represent top English Premiership clubs. Victims are duped into sending money in the belief that they are paying official registration fees to have a trial at Premiership clubs.

STRANDED ABROAD TWIST

They hack into someone's Hotmail account and send e-mail to people in the person's address book. The recipients are asked to send money to help the Hotmail account-holder, who is stranded during a holiday in Nigeria.

Former Singapore Idol finalist Jeassea Thyidor had similar experience with her Hotmail account.

LONELY WOMAN TWIST

They pose as pretty and lonely women in trouble and ask victims to send them money so they can fly to meet them.