Love is a losing game, our cold black heart cries from the icy depths of our chest cavity, and for one Johor-area woman, her losses were more than emotional: Two separate online boyfriends managed to swindle RM800,000 (US$200,000) from the 50-something year-old woman.
Single and looking for love, she befriended the two men separately on Facebook, speaking to them over the course of a month before both professed their love for her.
According to The Star, one man promised her an eye-watering RM4 million (US$1 million) in cash; the other, sundry gifts.
As it were, neither of these things materialized, and instead the woman began to receive a steady stream of calls from courier companies and dispatch riders, asking for her to cover fees for licenses, taxes and immigration clearance costs.
Believing the calls to be genuine and that she would soon be the recipient of her paramours’ gifts, she transferred varying sums of money to 12 difference individuals over the course of a month. Amounts varied between RM3,000 (US$7,500) and up to RM100,000 (US$25,000), and soon she found herself nearly a million ringgit out of pocket.
Described as a lonely woman, she only began to suspect that something was awry when the requests for cash began to increase in sum. Later, she began to receive threatening phone calls, demanding that she deposit the cash into sundry bank accounts.
At this point, the terrified woman spoke to her family, telling them her story. She then lodged a police report.
It wasn’t the only love scam story The Star covered this fine Wednesday: Another Malaysian woman was conned out of RM40,000 (US$10,000) by a man claiming to live in London. Like our Johor woman, she met the individual online.
After three months of chatting with the man online, the married housewife was told by her new friend that he wanted to send her a parcel. However, when the “parcel” arrived, she was told that she needed to pay RM2,000 in clearances, which she obliged. Pretty soon, more requests came in, and the 30-something year-old was transferring different sums into different accounts to the tune of RM40K.
Finding herself majorly out of pocket and with no promised parcel, she filed a police report on the matter.
Damn, there’s a lot of lonely hearts out there.
Word to the wise, and weary: if anyone says they love you, and then asks for money (hello, every bf of our 20s) they’re not a good person. Especially if you’ve never met them in person. Don’t send the money. Just don’t. OK? Go buy yourself a Jag and do you.
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