Cancer-stricken woman loses $80,000 to online boyfriend 'Fei Yu-ching'
A woman discovers she had been deceived and was not in a relationship with veteran singer Fei Yu-ching.
PHOTO: Lianhe Zaobao
PUBLISHED ONMarch 05, 2023 6:30 AMByAisha HassanMany of us will jump at the chance of talking to our favourite celebrities online, let alone romance them.
So when someone on the Internet approached an elderly woman, claiming that he was veteran Taiwanese singer Fei Yu-ching, who could blame her for falling in love?
It turned out to be a scam that left her with both a broken heart and an empty bank account.
The 71-year-old woman surnamed Huang was swindled of $80,000 by someone posing as the singer, Shin Min Daily News reported on Saturday (March 4).
Huang told Shin Min that she began communicating with the man last August after receiving his text message. At the time, she had just started treatment for terminal stage breast cancer.
After chatting for some time, the scammer professed his love to her and told her he wanted to meet her in Singapore.
Moved by his words, Huang started an online relationship with the man.
Blinded by love, she agreed to open a new bank account and share the login details with him. She even transferred over $20,000 to the account.
Later on, the scammer told the woman that a package containing cash and gold bars intended for her was held up at the Singapore Customs.
He claimed that his bank account was frozen and asked Huang to lend him $12,000 so that the package could be collected.
Huang started to panic after noticing the man transferring $11,934 out of the account last September.
She pressed him to return the money but was reassured that he loved her and he was not after her money.
The scammer managed to convince her to part with another $10,000 for a similar package.
With the maturation of two policies, Huang also deposited $58,539 into the bank account. The money went missing the next day.
The man made off with a total of $80,000 from her bank account.
After losing contact with the scammer, Huang decided to head to the bank for help and discovered that she had been deceived.
She also made a police report.
Such love scams have caused victims in Singapore to suffer great losses.
Last year, a man in his 70s walked into UOB's main branch trying to bank in a cheque of more than $150,000 to an offshore account who he deemed was "his girlfriend from the Netherlands".
Fortunately, assistant branch manager Alison Cheng was able to stop the man from doing so after convincing him that he was likely the victim of a love scam.
"The man was suddenly resolute and told us not to carry out the transaction," Cheng added.
According to statistics released by the police, scam victims here lost a total of $660.7million in 2022. These included phishing scams, e-commerce scams and love scams among others.
And contrary to popular belief, more than 53 per cent of scam victims were between 20 and 39 years old.
What Huang experienced appears to be one of the modus operandi of love scams, and the police have advised members of the public to:
- Exercise caution when befriending strangers online
- Never send money to people whom you do not know or have not met in person before
- Do not provide the gift cards activation codes to people whom you do not know or have not met in person before
- When in doubt, always verify the details of the call with the relevant government agencies
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