I fell for a love scam: How they made it seem so real

‘Samantha’, a divorcee in her 50s from Malaysia, fell for a pig butchering scam - a mash-up of romance and investment schemes run by Asia-based online scam syndicates. When asked how it was possible to fall in love so quickly without having met the person in real life, Samantha said “it’s like going back to the days when we had penpals, the thing called letters”. Within months, Samantha lost about US$20,000. Looking back, Samantha said there were red flags that she should not have ignored. These are the lessons she’s learnt.