Scam Caller Allegedly Asks Victims To Name An Acquaintance & Pretends To Be Them
In recent years, scammers have devised many ways to trick victims into falling for their schemes.
Apparently, a new type of scam has surfaced, involving the caller asking victims to guess their name before requesting for money.
On Thursday (5 Jan), a man took to TikTok to share about his encounter with the scam, advising others to stay alert.
@chengtheguitarist Hello @Singapore Police Force got new scam call
♬ original sound – Cheng | Guitarist 🇸🇬 – Cheng | Guitarist 🇸🇬
Scam caller asks victims to guess their name
In the video, TikTok user AoCheng’s girlfriend described the scam call her mother received.
She claimed that her mother received a call from an unknown number. When she answered, the person addressed her by her name directly.
After that, the caller proceeded to inform her mother that his house was under renovation, and his mobile phone was missing. As such, he changed his phone number.
Source: @chengtheguitarist on TikTok
Her mother, understandably perplexed, asked the man who he was.
In response, he repeatedly asked her, “You guess?” in Chinese.
Judging from the caller’s voice, she guessed that he was an acquaintance by the name ‘Kelvin’. Immediately, the caller confirmed that it was him.
AoCheng apparently received a similar call too, from a local unknown number starting with ‘8’. Likewise, the caller persistently asked AoCheng to guess his identity.
Source: @chengtheguitarist on TikTok
During the exchange, he somehow established that the caller was Malaysian, and recalled a Malaysian customer who recently purchased ketones from him.
AoCheng thus asked the caller if he was the buyer.
Using this information, the caller claimed that he was indeed the customer.
Before ending the conversation, he allegedly told AoCheng that his previous number was no longer in use.
Caller requests to borrow money
In the later part of the video, AoCheng’s friend also shared about a similar call she received. Again, the caller kept asking her to guess his name.
Source: @chengtheguitarist on TikTok
Although annoyed, she played along with the scheme as the caller sounded familiar. She proceeded to ask if he was Kelvin, which he confirmed.
However, ‘Kelvin’ called her again the next day, requesting to borrow money.
This caused her to grow suspicious, and she reached out to her friend, asking him if he had changed his number.
After he replied that he did not, she realised that it was most likely a scam call.
Be aware of possible scam calls
At the end of the video, AoCheng explained that he wanted to raise awareness about the new type of scam that was going around.
Speaking to MS News, he advised others who received such calls to try random names or ask more questions to verify the caller’s identity. However, he did not report the incident to the police.
Hopefully, after AoCheng’s video, more people will be wary of these calls and avoid falling victim to a scam.
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Featured image adapted from @chengtheguitarist on TikTok.
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