Elderly man contacted by ‘woman’ on TikTok, gets scammed after agreeing to set up ‘business’
An elderly man was scammed by a “woman” he met on TikTok, losing a total of S$55,500.
Despite this, the 76-year-old, who declined to be named, told Shin Min Daily News that he still believed that she was a real person.
Source: Olivier Bergeron on Unsplash. Photo for illustration purposes only.
Elderly man scammed by woman as she ‘looked nice’ over TikTok
The man was contacted by a user with the name of “Ms Li” on 21 April, he said.
When she sent him a message over TikTok, he agreed to chat with her as she was Chinese and “looked nice”, he added.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Although he knew that scammers were everywhere and had supposedly been vigilant, he was lured as she professed to be interested in “doing business”.
Thus, he continued the conversation with her over WhatsApp.
Woman proposed ‘investment’ with high profits
“Ms Li” subsequently proposed an “investment” to him, promising high profits.
On 29 April, he was introduced to TikTok Shop, an e-commerce feature of the social media app.
She then taught him how to download a “business version” of TikTok by clicking on an unverified link.
After registering an account, he had to invest a sum of money in the platform in order to “do business” by putting products on shelves.
He transferred S$55.5K into online account
On 1 May, “Ms Li” asked the man to download a virtual currency wallet, which he did after trying twice.
He was asked to take photos of the front and back of his bank card, pair it with the app, then transfer cash into the e-wallet.
“Ms Li” claimed the account would be used for cash withdrawals for business operations.
As he could initially withdraw thousands of dollars in cash, he transferred S$55,500 into the account.
Source: Gilles Lambert on Unsplash. Photo for illustration purposes only.
Victim lost most of his retirement savings
However, the man realised that he had been cheated when he was unable to withdraw the money.
The funds made up most of his savings that were meant for retirement, he said.
The loss caused him to lose his appetite and endure sleepless nights.
He also had to borrow S$10,000 from a friend, he added.
He finally made a police report on 6 June, and hopes the police can conduct an in-depth investigation.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
Still hiding the truth from his wife
After struggling with it for a while, he mustered up the courage to tell his three children about the scam, but has not told his wife about it yet, he said, adding:
I’m worried that my wife would be worried and sad if she knew the truth.
The couple were relying on the savings for their retirement, he explained.
His children are now raising money for their living expenses and hiding it from their mother at the same.
They have agreed to give him about S$1,000 of living expenses a month without her knowledge.
Elderly man believes woman he met over TikTok is real despite getting scammed
Despite all that has happened, the man believes “Ms Li” is a real person.
In fact, he is still in contact with her and has even had a video chat with her, he said.
Source: Shin Min Daily News
He also noted that she changed her number to a Hong Kong number, so he believes that she is in Hong Kong.
He added that she should be a real person, as her photos did not look AI-generated.
When told that scammers might have used another person’s photo, he insisted that this was impossible as “Ms Li” could still send him photos in real time even when travelling abroad.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News.
