A 37-year-old woman lost over $80,000 after her Tinder match asked her to invest in his cosmetic business.
Yet, she’s not the only one in this predicament. 12 others have reported being scammed by the same man.
Here’s what you need to know about it.
37-Year-Old Woman Loses Over $80K After Tinder Match Asks Her to Invest in His Cosmetics Business
It might have been some time since we last heard of Tinder swindlers, but they’ve never really left. Last year, a 37-year-old woman by the surname Lin lost more than $80,000 after investing in her Tinder match’s business.
Yes, you read that right. Not $80 or $800, but $80,000. Five zeros sia.
According to Shin Min Daily News, in April last year, Lin met a man over the dating app Tinder. After a month of talking online, the man requested to meet Lin in real life.
The man then invited Lin to invest in his cosmetics business, which apparently sold LED face masks as the main product.
The question is then, how was the investment supposed to work?
Well, Lin was told that she could purchase the LED face masks for a low price of $298 each. Subsequently, he would arrange for the LED face masks to be sold at $388 each. Do the math, and that’s a profit of $90 for each LED face mask sold.
In other words, it looks to be some form of a supplier-distributor agreement, with the man acting as the supplier and Lin as the distributor.
The man also assured Lin that he had customers waiting to purchase the LED face masks, and he could ensure that all LED face masks in Lin’s hands would be sold.
Lin agreed to the arrangement — the high returns from the arrangement appealed to her, as her mother urgently needed money for surgery at the time.
Despite having insufficient cash in hand, the 37-year-old decided to buy 128 LED face masks from the man. But that was far from enough for the man — he later urged Lin to purchase another 72 cosmetic tools on the ground that a customer had an urgent order.
He promised that she would make a profit within two weeks.
At this juncture, Lin has bought a total of 200 cosmetic products from the man. According to Lin, she had to take loans from at least five banks to finance this “investment”.
In total, she claimed to have spent more than $80,000 on the “investment” she entered into.
So, when did Lin finally realise that the man she was speaking to, was a Tinder swindler? Well, it didn’t take long.
When Lin asked the man when the money would be credited to her account, the man initially gave her a vague response and asked that she wait. Subsequently, he completely “ghosted” her, leaving her with a mountain of debt.
Ah… Classic. Just like all those Crimewatch episodes.
To pay off her debts, the 37-year-old has since taken out a loan from Malaysian banks. She also started working part-time over the weekends, in addition to her full-time job on weekdays.
There really is no such thing as a free lunch in this world lah.
Police investigations into the case are currently ongoing.
12 Others Fell Victim to Same Man’s Scams; Over $500,000 Lost in Total
But here’s the kicker — Lin was far from the only person who fell victim to the man’s tactics.
After Lin was “ghosted” by the man, she posted about her experience on social media. Little did she know, many others had also fallen victim to the same man’s scams — some netizens left comments on her post, sharing that they had also lost money under similar circumstances.
The man allegedly used different mobile numbers to contact different women. And in true “romance scam” fashion, he would also take the women out to fine dining restaurants before bringing up the “investment”.
Well, you’ve got to give it to him, he knows the craft lah.
Subsequently, Lin created a group chat with 12 other victims of the same scam. In total, the 13 of them lost more than $500,000.
One particular woman, a 38-year-old surnamed Wu, lost $3,000 in the same “investment” — but she could have lost even more.
Wu had also met the man over Tinder. However, this time, the man asked to meet her in real life the very next day — this is in contrast to Lin’s case, where the man only asked to meet Lin one month after they first met over Tinder.
Anyway, when Wu met up with the man, she was given the same sales pitch about an “investment” in cosmetic tools.
Wu shared that as her father in Malaysia was suffering from cancer at the time, the idea of fast cash and quick returns appealed to her — she wanted to make money to help pay for her father’s medical expenses.
As such, Wu also agreed to the “investment” arrangement. However, as Wu was unemployed at the time and had a tight budget, she only gave the man $3,000 as a deposit.
Wu’s father then passed away in June last year. However, when Wu told our Tinder swindler about it, he persistently demanded that she pay him the remaining money she owed, which amounted to more than $20,000.
And when Wu refused to pay him, well, you guessed it — the man “ghosted” her as well.
At this point, Halloween is going to become a year-round event sia.
These types of scams aren’t as uncommon as you think they are, so don’t be fooled when you hop onto dating apps lah. If you’re not sure how to protect yourself from scams, you can read the ScamShield website to find out more.
If you watch at least 10 minutes of brain rot content daily, you must know this:
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