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‘I was so scared’: Solo female Canadian traveller gets approached by random men at USS in suspected human trafficking scam

Solo Canadian woman stalked after sharing Instagram account with stranger at USS

On Saturday (25 Jan), a solo female traveller from Canada who was visiting Singapore shared on the r/askSingapore subreddit a chilling encounter of meeting a potential scammer at Universal Studios Singapore (USS).

“Is this common place in Singapore?” she asked in her post before detailing her personal encounter that she believed may have been an attempt to scam foreigners into a sex trafficking scheme.

Canadian solo traveller shares random encounter on Reddit

The OP, referred to as ‘Sarah’ in the Reddit post, recounted her story which has since garnered attention on the platform.

The 23-year-old freelance writer described being approached by a friendly girl upon entering USS.

“She looked very nice and had a big smile on her face,” Sarah wrote, adding that she struck up a conversation.

“She asked me how long I’d be in Singapore, what I was going to do,” Sarah wrote. Later, the girl also asked for Sarah’s Instagram account, which Sarah provided.

The girl, who goes by the name of Claudine Poon on Instagram, then started chatting with Sarah on the app.

Source: Tripadvisor

Claudine inquired about Sarah’s plans and her departure time from the park, which at first seemed like innocent curiosity.

However, Sarah began receiving messages from the girl throughout the day, asking her repeatedly about her departure timing.

Sarah wrote: “I figured maybe she’s just interested in me because I’m a foreigner?”

 

Source: OP on Imgur

Approached by strange men who knew her name

When the park closed at 8pm, Sarah said she was approached by “a random American man” who invited her out for a drink.

“He walked up to me as if he had been looking for me. He knew my name too.”

Alarmed by his familiarity, she rejected his advances. The situation escalated when he grabbed her wrist. Thankfully, a nearby family intervened and told the man to go away, prompting the man to flee.

The family thought the encounter was “weird” and offered to accompany Sarah to get a taxi back to her hostel but she declined.

However, as she made her way to the Grab ride that she had ordered, a second man –“a black African man”– approached her in the same manner as the previous man, calling her name and asking her out for a drink.

“I was so scared at that point,” she wrote.

She quickly got into her ride and returned to her hostel, feeling shaken.

Suspects girl was behind scam

Suspecting that she was somehow involved in the earlier encounter the strange men, Sarah messaged Claudia and recounted her encounter with her.

Source: OP on Imgur

Claudia allegedly replied: “I’m sorry Sarah, I wouldn’t do what those men did to my family.”

The girl’s cryptic response left Sarah even more convinced that this was part of a coordinated scheme to lure her, possibly linked to human or sex trafficking.

Fearing for her safety, Sarah blocked Claudia on Instagram.

Source: OP on Imgur

“I left Singapore early and went to Malaysia because I was so scared,” she wrote, asking netizens in Singapore if this encounter was “normal” and whether it “happens a lot”.

When MS News contacted her, the 23-year-old said that she was in the process of reporting the incident to the police. She also mentioned in her Reddit post that she would be contacting USS as well.

“This is the first time it has happened, and it was my first visit to Singapore,” she explained.

Asked if this incident will stop her from visiting Singapore again in the future, she shared: “No, but I will be very careful next time.”

Netizens express disbelief at woman’s encounter

One netizen expressed shock at her experience, explaining how Singapore is generally regarded as a safe country.

Source: Reddit

Another commenter urged her to report the incident to the police as someone else may not be as lucky as her.

Source: Reddit

A Redditor was glad to know that she was safe and hoped this did not affect her impression of Singapore.

Source: Reddit

Also read: I was stalked when I was 14 & it was the most helpless I’ve ever felt

Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.

Featured image adapted from Tripadvisor & energepic.com from Pexels on Canva.

Gary Yang

Gary is a football fanatic with a knack for finding beauty in the most unexpected places — whether it’s a perfectly-timed goal or the perfect cup of coffee on a lazy Saturday.

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