Falling victim to ‘love’

Lonely men looking for companionship tricked into losing money

PETALING JAYA: Lonely men seeking for love online, including a Tan Sri, ended up losing hundreds of thousands of ringgit to young women, who claimed to be foreign students.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said the scam came to light after scores of men sought his help over the past months.

“Based on their stories and photographs of the women, we believe there is a group of tricksters using social media to prey on lonely men,” he said.

Chong said all the victims have a similar story – a pretty young foreign student, who was unable to pay their university fees and seeking financial assistance.

“They would cook up sob stories to get sympathy,” he said.

Chong said initially, they would ask for a sum of RM6,000 to help settle the fees.

In return, these young women promised to be the men’s companion.

After getting the money, these women would go the extra mile to woo these men further and deeper into their relationship by sending them kinky and sexy photographs.

Aside from sexy messages on social media, they also asked some of these men to send their naked pictures to them.

Chong revealed that some of these victims used their life savings, borrowed money from their relatives and loan sharks to give to the women, unknowingly falling deeper into a trap.

“They only realised their mistake when they could no longer cough up any more money,” he said.

Chong said out of the scores of victims who came to him, only 12 were willing to share their tales to warn others.

The others, including businessmen and professionals, were too embarrassed to file official reports.

“From our checks, we found out that the pictures belonged to foreign models, who had posed for hobbyist photographers,” said Chong.

“We believe a group of people had used these sexy and seductive models’ pictures to lure their victims,” he added.

Chong urged the people to be more wary when they get such messages from women, asking for money over social media.

“Chances are they are out to cheat you,” he said.

Based on their stories and photographs of the women, we believe there is a group of tricksters using social media to prey on lonely men. Datuk Seri Michael Chong