Beware of falling in love online, because what is you see isn’t always what you’ll get.
Aside from losing your heart, you can also lose a lot of money.
This was the lesson for one Singaporean. He began a relationship with a Malaysian influencer who lives in Taiwan and ended up giving her $30,000 for her livestream platform in just a few months.
And then, at around the same time he grew suspicious of her motives, another man who was a fan of the influencer reached out to him, and he later discovered that she had used the same MO to get money from other men in different countries.
The man, Chen, 41, told Shin Min Daily News that the influencer had caught his eye and he began following her social media pages.
He started messaging her in November 2021, and by January of this year, received messages from the woman, whom he described as “girl of his dreams.”
They chatted daily, with the woman sometimes sending him photos.
Shortly after they started messaging, she began working as a presenter for a livestreaming platform.
Chen told Shin Min that the woman had asked him to spend $50 on gifts for her as part of the quota of 100 virtual gifts allegedly set by her company.
If she failed to meet this quota, she would lose her job.
To support her, Chen then started spending as much as $2,500 on gifts for each session.
By March, she told him that she had fallen for him and their relationship began.
However, he spent $2,500 on the 14th of every month on the woman.
”She designated the 14th of every month to be Valentine’s Day and she asked me to send her gifts. If my gifts weren’t as expensive as her fans’, she would get mad.
I ended up spending $2,500 on her each time and it came up to about $30,000 in total,” Chen added.
After hearing from another person who supported her in the same way, he realised he was just one of several men she was taking money from.
At one point Chen messaged her to say, “I’m sorry, I really cannot afford to send you such gifts.”
But the woman answered him, “My house is your house, am I not worth that much to you? Am I that lousy?
I know I’m not your next of kin so you may not think it’s worthwhile, but to me you’re the most special. I want to be better, I want everyone to know that we accomplished this together.”
Chen has since filed a police report on the woman, but is realistic in believing he won’t recover the thousands he spent on her.
Shin Min Daily News added that the woman has victimised other men in Singapore, Malaysia and Korea with the same modus, including a 32-year-old named Lin, who spent a total of $3000 on her.
He told Shin Min that some of the messages the woman had sent to him and Chen were similar, with some even sent at around the same time.
/TISG