Believe it, scammers are here in Facebook. A couple of nights ago, someone contacted me on Facebook through messages.
It started innocuously enough. A simple greeting message. My interest was pique. Who is this, from UK, so its profile seemed to say. The account seemed to have just been activated. And she have only 1 friend, a bloke from London, UK. No big deal, I thought, maybe just someone who wanted to try new stuff. I stared hard at the profile photo, trying to remember, if I knew her before. It drew a blank.
So, I replied back. She claimed to be an auditor with a major corporation in UK. I would not name it. She said she was from Malaysia, and that her dad died when she was young. Her mum, a British national, brought her back to UK, and she have been staying there, since. She is a single mother with a child. And she asked me about my family.
Briefly, I replied back with my family history. Then she asked me about the cost of living in Singapore, taxes and such. She claimed that she will be relocating here soon with her 11 year old son. Now, that is already an inconsistency. Why? She named her son "Cherry"?
That was also a strange request. If you were an auditor, in an international concern, you'd probably know, more or less about the taxes in various countries, and the cost of living.
So I replied about Singapore cost of living and taxes. And I placed a couple of personal questions.
She didn't answer those, instead ask me about my email address. My email is public knowledge. All you need to do is add me as a friend, and the details will appear. If you are sincere, you can connect with me on my LinkedIn.
I have already an inkling what the email will be. The infamous Nigeria, (sorry Nigeria), scam methodology.
Generally, it will be like this. Someone, who happened to work as a civil servant in a bank, claimed to hold large sums of money, from a deceased royalty, or variations of it. He is offering you something like 10% to 30% share of the money. That always amazes me, because why would they contact an unknown person? Wouldn't it be better if they get their relatives? And the clan pockets 100% of the monies.
So you agree, and next thing you know they would be asking you for a so called deposit money of a couple of thousand of dollars, purportedly for clearance fees.
You are hooked, with millions of dollars imagined, you transfer the amount. Being incorrigible salesman they are, they ask you for some more, claiming that another "official" or whatever got to know about it, and are demanding more payment.
By the time you realized it was a scam, you'd probably lost a couple of thousands. Then, you will start crying mummy daddy, to the police or whoever cares to listen to you.
Whatever it is, you deserved it simply because of your greed.
Now, her email contained a variation of the Nigerian scam. She claimed her company is interested in building a hotel in Singapore, and for your assistance, they are willing to compensate you, and she signed off with: May Allah lead us to His path, Amen.
When will anybody learn, that simply putting the name of God, doesn't guarantee sincerity?
For someone, who claimed to be living in UK, for so long, her command English was atrocious. It sounded like a foreigner, speaking English, rather than a native speaker.
Where did the email go to? Spam box!
So, please, dear readers, don't fall for it. If you received anything like that, simply ignore and delete the email.
If she was genuine, she probably asked to add as a friend.
