Beware of cyber conmen

Beware of cyber conmen, women urged 

The Star – 17 Dec 2016

JOHOR BARU: Women have been advised to be more alert when they are approached by strangers online, especially when they are extra attentive.

Non-governmental organisation Johor Women’s League (Jewel) programme chairman V. Thanam said women should not be too trusting of these strangers as they could be out to con them. She said cyber conmen were very good at getting insecure women to trust them, thus making them feel happy and wanted, when all they wanted was their money.


Thanam said it would be better if women were always wary of strangers who requested to become friends on social media as that could protect them from falling victim to possible scams.

“These conmen are good at making lonely women feel happy and appreciated. They can sweet-talk these women into telling them all their details. That is why women should especially be aware of those who start bringing up the issue of money.

“They should immediately sever ties with them,” she said yesterday.

Thanam said that she had come across several such love scam cases over the past few years.

“Women must be realistic and understand that the profile photos of the men who claimed to be rich and successful could be fake and were used only to attract insecure women,” she said, adding that women should never reveal their personal details, financial status, lifestyle and private lives to strangers.

It was reported in
The Star that a lonely secretary lost RM120,000 whom she befriended several months before through Facebook. The woman, who is in her 50s, made payments after getting a call from a “Customs officer” that she had to pay some fees before the gifts sent by her new-found boyfriend could be released. In another recent case, six Nigerians and a Liberian were arrested for cheating a businesswoman of RM500,000 in a black money scam.

Source: www.thestar.com.my