Vulnerable scam victims aren’t just the elderly. Despite growing up in the era of advanced technology, the younger generation may still naively walk into the trap of online scams.
Scammed of S$1,122
Unfortunately, a young girl’s attempt to support her family has caused more harm than good.
The 14-year-old girl fell victim to a recruiting scam while trying to earn an income for her family. The 42-year-old father of the victim, Mr Lu, told the reporter of Shin Min Daily that his daughter, who is in the second year of secondary school, fell for the scam last Friday (28 April).
The scammer, who posed as an “agent”, reached out to the victim through Telegram and pitched the idea that the victim could make a small income from completing online activities and would be rewarded between $S50 to $S200 for each completed task.
The victim accepted the “job” last Sunday (30 April). Following the “agent’s” instruction, her first assignment was to “store” S$100 with him, and she would be paid S$10 after completing the task.
It was unclear if the money she deposited initially was returned to her, but the subsequent tasks were similar, where the victim was asked to “store” money with the “agent” and be paid afterwards. Eventually, the money increased to the point where the victim could only covertly transfer S$284 and S$738 to two other mobile phone numbers via her mother’s bank account.
Things started to get more suspicious when the “stored value” reached $S1,122 in total, yet the amount of money asked was getting higher and way out of hand. At one point, the victim was asked to pay S$11,000.
Unable to store so much money, the victim felt helpless until a man suddenly contacted his daughter through Telegram and offered to help pay $3,000, but on the condition that she would send nude photos to the other party.
Thankfully, the victim did not follow through and instead tried to pass off nude photos from the internet as her own.
After the nude photo ordeal, the victim came clean with her mother and asked her to help recover the prior “stored” money.
Talking to Shin Min Daily, the mother recounted that her daughter had sobbed uncontrollably on Monday (1 May) when she admitted her deeds. The next day, the mother immediately cancelled her bank account, and a police report was made on the subsequent day.
While she has already forgiven her daughter for this mishap, and even though the money is unlikely to be recovered, Mr Lu and his wife hope other parents pay more attention to their child’s internet activities.
But besides parents, hopefully, readers out there also keep in mind that if a job description sounds dubious, it might be too good to be true.
