WeChat scammers cheat victims of more than S$70,000
A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon in Beijing on Dec 5, 2013. Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE — The next time you see an online advertisement selling attractive exchange rates for foreign currency and gaming credits, you may wish to think twice before taking up the offer.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (March 7), the police said that more than S$70,000 was lost by victims in multiple cases where scammers had promised to sell victims various items such as gaming credits or foreign currencies at attractive rates.
The post also outlined the modus operandi of these scammers, who conducted the scams via the Chinese messaging app WeChat.
The victims of foreign currency exchange scams would be asked to add the scammers on WeChat. Thereafter, the victims would be asked to transfer money to local bank accounts in order to receive the foreign currencies in the victims’ WeChat/Alipay account.
However, after payments were made, the victims failed to receive any money from scammers. The scammers would also block the victims on WeChat and become uncontactable.
There are also scams that target online gamers.
In these gaming scams, victims would usually encounter a pop-up advertisement selling in-gaming credits at a discounted price while playing games such as The Legend of the Condor Heros, Jian Xia Qing Yuan 3 and Xi Fei Zhuan.
The advertisement would then direct the victims to add the scammers on WeChat. Thereafter, the victims would be asked by the scammers to register for accounts and provide their personal particulars and bank account details.
Upon registration, the victims would be contacted via WeChat, QQ or LINE and asked to pay for gaming credits through Alipay, iTunes or MyCard. The scammers then failed to deliver the promised game credits and could not be contacted thereafter.
There were some victims who were further scammed into making additional payments under the pretext of various reasons such as fees to activate the bank account or to check the authenticity of victims’ bank accounts.
The police advised the public to exercise caution when responding to online advertisements and to bear in mind that the party you are dealing with online is a stranger.
In addition, the police advised against disclosing personal information such as your bank account details over the internet.
It is against the law for anyone to operate a money-changing business without a valid license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The public is advised to use the services of licensed money changers if you need to exchange currencies.
