Popular Post Britboy Posted January 20, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted January 20, 2023 One was tried on myself, one tried on a mate who lives in Thailand, not on any of the forums, but he is happy for me to share it so others don't get duped. So my one was on Thai Friendly. I got a "like" and a message from a 31 year old who called herself Moukky, quite pretty, all starts off as normal with the usual bullshit questions. Two pics on her profile. Messages over a couple of days, she tells me she's from Bangkok but moved to Chiang Mai 3 years ago to open a beauty business, specialising in Botox. Thought that was a bit odd, opening up a beauty salon just as Covid and lockdowns started. Anyway, that's irrelevant, all part of her "story", but was a red flag. So she starts saying we should meet up and she'd like to go to Koh Samui. Yesterday afternoon we swapped a few more messages, then she had some "business" to take care of and messaged me later in the evening to say "what are you doing"? I replied saying I was having dinner and a couple of beers, what is she up to? I get this back . . Yeah, right . . . Obvious where that is going, I sent "her" a short, very sharp message back and blocked "her". The 2nd scam that my mate encountered was more serious and unfortunately he fell for it, though thankfully didn't lose much. Could have been much, much worse. He's a really nice Norwegian guy, wouldn't hurt a fly, but a little naive. So one day he gets a WhatsApp message out of the blue from a number he didn't have in his directory. You've guessed it, a pretty girl. She said something like "Is this your number John?" He replied saying I'm not John, you must have a wrong number. So then the conversation started, she flirting with him, etc. etc. The swap of messages went on for a couple of weeks, the long con, though the seed was planted quite early when she told him that she was a gold trader and lived in KL (another red flag was she was supposed to be in KL but had a +66 phone number). That didn't register with him though, unfortunately. Slowly but surely she pulled him in to having a go at gold trading, with her expertise to say when to buy and when to sell. She gave him the URL and he registered on the site and received a login and password via email. She told him to try it first, just put in $100 US and go online at a certain time. He transferred the $100, it showed in his "account" and at the arranged time she said "buy" and a few minutes later "close". He had the full works on his screen of the price changing every second via "live" graphs. In that few minutes he "made" $60 profit. He then withdrew the original $100, which after a couple of days arrived in his bank account. So he was then on the hook. She suggested upping his stake, she was after him putting in $10,000 and promised he'd make a similar % return. He's not a wealthy guy and didn't want to risk that much. She told him that she was so confident he'd make money that she'd match anything he put in, so if he put in $10,000 she'd put $10,000 in his account as well. Thankfully he declined that and just went with $1,000, so transferred $940 to make the total in his "account" $1,000. Same process as before and he "made" another $400-ish, so he had around $1,400 in his online "account". She was then trying to persuade him to go in big, but he wanted to withdraw it all, so he put in the request for total withdrawal. Silence. He sent a chasing email and a few days later was told "if you withdraw it all you have to pay 20% tax and there's a $200 admin fee". He was angry, which turned into livid after chasing them over a few days and them coming back to say the admin fee has now doubled because you've taken so much time. Oh, and the tax and admin fee need to be transferred independently in order for them to release the $1,400. He threatened to involve Interpol, etc. to which he received one very curt reply then silence. A few days later the website no longer existed, he was blocked on WhatsApp and had no way to contact "them". Dreadful scam but he said it was just so realistic, with these interactive, live screens showing live charts and graphs of the "gold price". He sent me a couple of screenshots. These scammers are getting pretty clever, but there are always some red flags. I imagine they didn't close everything down because of him as it was a small amount. I imagine they conned someone out of a big lump, then shut it down, no doubt opening it up again under a different URL. They called this operation "Amazing Trade" if you happen to come across it. 4 1 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sangsom Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 Anyone who falls for idiotic things like that deserves to lose their money. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zambo Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 18 minutes ago, Sangsom said: Anyone who falls for idiotic things like that deserves to lose their money. This is the crazy bit "that few minutes he "made" $60 profit. He then withdrew the original $100, which after a couple of days arrived in his bank account." He could only have a profit if he withdrew USD 160. Which is a ridiculous amount and google could have shown him the answer. But getting USD100 back was more than he deserved. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boydeste Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 I have had that same message on both my WhatsApp accounts in the past few months, along with similar messages from numbers unknown to me. I always block and report then straight away. Very sad that people fall for scams, but I understand the lure of making easy money is strong with many. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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