Stuck-at-Custom Friendship Scams

Below is likely to be a scam. The scammer would pretend to befriend the victim and decide to drop by the victim's country. Then, he would be "trapped" at the custom for whatever reasons and require the victim's financial assistance.

There are many kind souls among us who are willing to offer help to friends. However, we would like everyone to take extra precaution when it comes to any form of help that involves in money. Even your real life friends may not return you the money you loan to them, what makes you think an online friend from another country will return?




Hi all,

I came across this blog, read the stories, and thought I should share mine. It is not 100% certified as a scam case, but I am at least 99% sure. Do tell me what you think after reading.

It all began when I downloaded an app called PlanetRomeo to my iPhone. It's a gay hook-up app, so to speak.

One fine day, I got a message from this guy. He first asked me how was the weather in Singapore, and we started chatting from there. We hit it off straightaway.

He said he was from Cardiff, UK, and said that his current project would end soon, and his next project would be at Australia. He claimed that he was looking for a friend to hang out with during the 3 weeks between his current project in the UK, and the next one at Perth.

So I found out from him when he would be arriving and all the details, and waited in anticipation for his arrival.

The fateful day arrived.

Tuesday, 18 June, 2013.
I received a call from an unknown number at around 12+ pm. It was him! I nearly had a heart attack, thinking that he had arrived in Singapore.

Sadly, no, he was not in Singapore. He told me that he was stuck at the KL customs. When I asked him why, he told me he was carrying a large amount of cash, and that his cash had been confiscated by the authorities. He needed 2600 Malaysian Ringgit to pay for an anti-money laundering certificate. He said he had only 1200 Malaysian Ringgit in his wallet, and asked if I could send him the balance. I did.

Well, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013.
Another call was received from him, at around the same time. This time, he asked for 1800 Malaysian Ringgit. He claimed that the customs officer's boss needed him to pay this amount for some form of insurance. So I obliged.

Thursday, 20 June, 2013.
Wow, another call. This time, he said he needed 800 Malaysian Ringgit to pay for some endorsement that will enable him to pass through the Singapore customs without being stopped again because of his cash.

I remitted the money, and a few hours later, he called me again, and said that it should be 800 Singapore Dollars instead. Well, what could I do? I helped again.

Friday, 21 June, 2013.
What needed to be done now was for him to check that his luggage had not been tampered with, and that his cash was all intact.

He asked for 2800 Malaysian Ringgit, saying that he needed to purchase some Swif Code that will enable him to open his luggage to check.

I started getting suspicious, and googled to find out what was a Swif Code - I did not find any information on it.

Stupidly thinking that this would be the last hurdle, I remitted this amount accordingly.

He told me that he had managed to contact his kid sister in the US, and she will be remitting some money to my account

Saturday, 22 June, 2013.
I got an email from this lady, who attached the PDF copies of the transaction she did at the Bank of America. It was a wire transfer for an amount of USD 5000. Transaction was done on Fri, 21 June, 2013, US timing 9 or 10am. It was called a Payment Advice. Of course, I was more reassured with this so-called "proof".

Back to him. Well, he had the Swif Code, but before they could release his luggage back to him, he needed to pay for some customs overstay, which was quite a big amount. I can't remember how much it was, but I paid up accordingly.

Sunday, 23 June, 2013.
No news.

Monday, 24 June, 2013.
He called and told me he was not able to leave on Saturday, although I had already remitted the funds, because the office that was supposed to clear him to leave for Singapore was open half day. He needed more money for overstay.

Tuesday, 25 June, 2013.
I remitted some money via Western Union to him to pay for the overstay, but for some reason, the KL Western Union machine had some problems, and he could not get that funds. The airport officer told me that because this is a machine fault, he will not be charged for the overstay from 25 June - 12 pm on 26 June.

He also claimed that he had spoken to someone from the UK embassy, and told the person about his circumstances.

Wednesday, 26 June, 2013.
Got an SMS from the airport officer, saying that they had booked an evening flight for him.

I was overjoyed, because I thought I would finally be able to meet him, and get my money back.

My happiness was short-lived.

Shortly after the SMS from the airport officer, he called, and said that they were going to charge him for the overstay... I was speechless.

Desperately, I checked my bank account to see if his sister's funds have come through - no, no news at all.

Anyway, the conclusion: I dished out around S$7500, most of which was borrowed from friends and family, to help this man. My only hope is that the USD 5000 would come in accordingly...

Serial Rapist Scams - Drugs

In this age of Internet, more and more couples have begun knowing each other through social media. It is indeed easy to make friends online because it is less awkward to be rejected via the Internet. The Internet has helped people who have less confidence or are too busy to socialise, to make more friends and find their potential halves.

However, nothing is perfect in this world. There are definitely going to be scammers who try to take advantage of our newage medium. Online dating scams emerge one after another.

We have foreign guys trying to trick Singapore ladies into "bailing" them out from the local police, Singapore couple and foreign girls extorting Singapore guys after making them reveal their private parts through webcam, foreign girls alluring Singapore guys into their websites, and the most recent news involves in a local guy dating girls out, spiking their drinks and rape them without them knowing.

Azuar Ahamad, 41, managed to take advantage of 22 women he met through SpeedDate (a Facebook application) by using drugs. His victims were aged between 18 and 41. He would bring them to a nightspot, drug them and bring them to hotel for sexual actions. He even filmed himself sexually assaulting some of the women on his mobile phone.

The victims would wake up without knowing anything since they were drugged. Azuar Ahamad would deny everything and simply claim that they were drunk and passed out.

Truth came to light when some of the women suspected and reported him to the police. However, he denied using of drugs.

Source: AsiaOne

As reported by The Temasek Times, a senior banker only realized she was raped after police officers called her. Her identity is kept confidential under a court gag order.

We are rather stunned by the number of Singapore girls who obviously have not filtered their dates whom they meet online. It is also stunning that young girls of age 18 would meet up their blind dates at nightspots.

We would like to appeal to nightspots regulars to look out for the ladies even if you are just a stranger.

Another Internet Romance Scam

Below is another romance scam alert by one of our visitors:

Okay, another romance con artist going by the name of Desmond Cliff, attracts Singaporean females. He claims he is Alaskan, been living in California, and outstationed in Sabah, Malaysia. Works for Chase company. Wife died of childbirth, both parents had died, and only brother left. He is in Badoo.com, facebook and also yahoo messenger. From his accent and spelling and words use, one can tell a little later, that he is not American. Americans don't use 'severally', nor say 'back' as 'buk'.. only UKs and Nigerians do that. Be careful. His stories will look so real when it comes to asking you to help him financially. He would tell you how he got help from others first, and then you are his last resort. How he needed just that much left. I was a victim. Glad it wasn't so much but I am still threatening him to repay me back. Learned my lesson with all this wealth of information on the net. Also, everybody in US will be listed in PeopleSearch, so check out first. Be careful out there.

Sorry reporters, this victim did not leave any contact behind as well.

Internet Love Scams - Victims Please Contact Us

As reported by various presses in Singapore, a 32-year-old Nigerian was arrested by the Malaysian police in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for series of internet love scams. He was extradited to Singapore on 11 April 2012.

The scammer would befriend female victims through online dating and social networking websites. He would then try to start fake love relationships with the ladies. He would pretend to visit Singapore and claim to be detained at the Checkpoint, after which, he would request the victims to remit money to certain bank accounts so that he could be released.

If you are a victim of such scam or have a friend who has fallen prey to such scammer, do contact us with your contact details. We will update the reporters who are working on internet love scams news so that they can contact you to find out more in order to educate the public. Your particulars will be kept confidential.

Your kind assistance will be very appreciated by everyone.

Calling for Internet Love Scam Victims

Dear all,

We have being contacted by a reporter from the Straits Times to look for victims of Internet love scams.

If you or any of your friends have experienced such scam, do step out and share your story because it can help many people to avoid being scammed.

To share the story, please contact us or Carolyn at kcarolyn at sph dot com dot sg.

Please note that the article is due for this coming Sunday (12 February 2012).

I'm Carolyn from the Straits Times.

There has been a rise in internet love scams, up from last year and we're looking at doing a story on victims of Internet love scams and to find out the reasons why they fell prey to such crime.

We're hoping that Scams Singapore would be able to refer us to victims who were scammed before or were close to being scammed. Rest assured we won't mention any names in our story.

By helping us, Scams Singapore would be doing a public service as the stories and experiences would help to serve as cautionary tales for many other Singaporeans.

Hope to hear from you as soon as possible, thanks.

Regards,
Carolyn
6319****

Online Dating Scams - Appeal by "tagged convictim"

Below is an appeal from a victim of an online scam known as "tagged convictim". Although she did not indicate, we have reason to believe that she has met the scammer through the social networking website - Tagged.com.

If you are a victim of similar case, do report to the police immediately.

If the scammer you have encountered is similar to the guy as described by the victim, do leave a comment at the bottom of this blog entry.

I met a guy a few months ago and he claimed he love me and won my heart within days. In fact, he proposed right after our first meeting and was doing everything a girl dream for. He drove around in luxurious sport cars and claimed he has many businesses. (I guess his story would be different for every case). It wasnt money that made me fell in love with him but the charisma and attentiveness he possess. Whatever it is, for my case, he claimed he bought a house for us and even showed me evidences, etc. Days later he asked for a loan due to cash flow problems. I felt I was the cause of his problem and loan him a huge sum of money. He then disappeared and said he's too ashamed to face anyone. His identity is faked and contact numbers are not registered under his name. He has been doing this for a few years and I believe there are many victims out there. He has been caught recently and now on bail. I am looking for more girls to stand up to seek justice.

Description of him: 33/Chinese/Singaporean, about 176cm, fat with short hair (with long gold fringe) and the most distinctive feature is his two broken front teeth. He is always in tshirt and bermudas and mostly driving a black Nissan.

Please drop me a message if you think you are one of the victims. Contacts will be confidential. May justice prevail.

Online Social Networking Website Scams

Social networking websites refer to websites such as Facebook and MySpace, which allows friends to link up together via the internet.

Many couples have started dating after knowing each other through such websites. Social networking websites are mediums that allow shy people to approach and make friends with others.

Recently, through the main stream media, there are more reports of scammers from foreign countries who target Singaporean ladies. They make friends with the ladies through the internet and their patience allows the ladies to believe in them after months of online interaction.

The usual scammers will try to con the victims to transfer money to them or their counterparts directly. Such tactic has already been ongoing for many years.

The latest trick of the scammers is to plan to drop by Singapore to visit the victims. They will pretend to be detained by the immigrant officers for under-declare the amount of money they have brought along. Then the "immigrant officers" will call the ladies to ask them to bail the scammers out by doing bank transfer of money.

The Singapore police force has clearly reminded everyone that the authorities in Singapore do not accept any bank transfer of money for bail or fine.

Everyone should be aware of such scam. Similar scams may also evolve any time as well. Do take care of your family and friends, and educate them on online scam.

Do not let love overrule your brain. It is not easy to establish cross-border relationship and most people will not be serious about it.