【Acrylic Painting by Dennis Tang】
(Paintings and Photos may not be relevant to the incident described)
Scammers always exploiting victims for money via social media (such as WeChat). There are several types of common scams perpetrated on social media platform such as romance scams, investment scams and job scams.
In a typical romance scam, the scammer will use portrait photos of sexy model to hunt for prey and try to lure in romantic interests, usually men. They will send greetings and photos of their “life” from time to time to earn trust of the victims. (Noted that many of these “women” are in fact not women!) They will then start presenting their investment products or claim to have insider information for investment tips, and taking only a small sum of money from their victims at the beginning. The scam continue until the victim request to cash out his “investment”; at which point, the “woman” will disappear.
To protect yourself from scams is in fact not difficult, just never send money to someone you have not met in person; do not trust an unknown “investment experts” and be cautious when talking to new people via the internet (or metaverse). Also, one should not be greedy for quick money when applying for a job to avoid becoming a tool for fraudulent groups.
If one is deceived, he should report to police as soon as possible and seek lawyer’s assistance to recover his loss.
