Scammers getting better but target victims also getting smarter

If you're sent this picture by someone wooing you online, run! It’s a tale as old as time, but the storytelling has gotten better, especially with the use of technology such as AI. Despite this, would-be victims are not as easily fooled anymore. This was true in the case of “Y,” a Filipina domestic helper in Hong Kong who told The SUN how she had been tricked into sending money to two men she met on separate dating sites a week ago. Luckily she realized soon enough that the men were both swindling her. Y said she lost a total of HK$700 that she sent through iTunes (Apple) gift cards to the men who asked for help because they were both surprisingly held up at Hong Kong airport on their way to meet her. (The iTunes cards are often preferred by scammers as a mode of money transfer because once the victim provides the code at the back of the card the funds can be spent instantly, leaving no trace of the person who cashed it in). But shortly after sending cash to the two, Y felt something was awry, and decided to cut off clean. It was all because both men claimed to have stopped at the airport after they decided to fly in to see her. Both needed money sent to them so they could call get their relatives to bail them out. Y hesitated at first, but one of the men who his name as Nelson Martin, began professing how much he loved her, and that it would take only little for her to help him get out of the tight fix he found himself in. Y said she gave in to his request only because she had – or thought she had – already chatted with him online. Martin who claimed to be an officer of the US army told her he was at the frontline fighting for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and even sent her gory photos of dead soldiers being thrown into trenches while he along with a few other men, tried to hold the enemy at bay. Y at first insisted Martin was American, saying they had already chatted through video, until she was told the area code of the telephone number he had used to woo her was registered in Nigeria. She also reluctantly agreed, on hindsight, that the guy she was chatting with online was not really responsive, but merely kept mouthing words meant to show how smitten he was with her. The realization that she had been played came when someone supposedly from Immigration Department sent her a text message asking why she allowed her boyfriend to try and enter Hong Kong with guns and large amounts of cash. Photo of a gun that Martin allegedly tried to bring in, along with loads of cash To make the story more believable, the man on the other line sent her a photo of the pistol supposedly seized at the airport, along with the message: “How can you allow him to enter into this country with very big amounts of money and a pistol..” Shocked, Y decided to block the number used by the supposed agent, and end her involvement with Martin. But there was another man in another dating site who also instantly fell for her, and immediately told her he would soon be traveling to Hong Kong to see her. Crude slip supposedly showing why 'Pedro Oscar' was held at the airport On the day of his supposed arrival in Hong Kong, the guy who gave his name as “Pedro Oscar” kept sending videos of HK airport to Y, but never appeared in any of them. Instead he sent photos of a man in a gaily printed shirt and a top hat posing in front of what looked like a part of HK Airport. Then – surprise – he too was supposedly stopped from entering for not having a “travel permit.” As proof, he sent a very crude-looking piece of paper in which the name “immigration department hong kong” (all in lower case) was written on the letter head, and below it, written by hand, also in small letter, the words “no travel permit.” Y again sent money through an iTunes card, but then found out he could no longer contact “Oscar.” In the end, she decided to ask The SUN to help tell her story so other Filipinas may not be duped the same way. She took comfort in knowing that the money she sent to the scammers was small compared to what many other love scam victims had foolishly lost.

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