Scam

I strongly believe some one wanted to cheat me and that I would have been scammed had I not been observant. Here's the story...

Couple of days back, somebody texted me in Grindr. Now, I don’t usually reply people as my main reason to be in Grindr is to know who’s around me. But for some reasons, I replied him. He seemed like a friendly enough guy. And that’s how the conversation with this person started. He’s a very decent person, sane, sorted and friendly. He said he's Korean, grew up alone in S Korea after his both parents passed away. He was brought up by his grandmother and had a happy childhood etc... he said he was educated in NYU and is now working in Singapore on a 2-year contract. He added he works in Tuas (western end of Singapore) and is an engineer in the oil rig industry etc. He then requested for my whatsapp number, which I gave. I got a text from him using a US number with a 917 area code. I thought it was weird that he didn’t use a local number since he’s been working for over a year here but didn’t asked further.

The conversation went along well. He would text me in the morning, disappear for the day and text me again in the evenings. And each time he text, he would send me his pics. Thought this behavior was weird. Two days into the conversation, his profile in my Grindr disappeared. I asked him about it but he didn’t answer. And the next morning, he said he might be activated to Dubai as they had some issues there. A few hours later, he texted me with a pic of him, saying he had just arrived at Dubai and was gonna take a shower. Now, this was when I started to suspect this chap. Firstly, traveling during this lockdown period is almost never heard of. I google about travel arrangements into Dubai and noted that although they are out of the lockdown period, they are still very restrictive to international biz travelers. And because I had been Dubai before, I know exactly the challenges of making traveling arrangements to get there. My suspicion started to grow but I didn’t pursue further.

The next day (yesterday) he send me a text in the morning saying he will be going out to do some site survey. It was weird cos in Dubai's time, it would be 4-ish in the morning and doing site survey at 4-5am doesn’t make sense. And a couple of hours later, he send me quite a few pics of his boat trips. The pics was quite a surprise frankly, and I entertained him and continued chatting with him. Still feeling suspicious, I asked which hotel he is staying in and he said Grand Hyatt. It was weird that a person would be put up in a 5-star hotel during a company trip. Anyway, the conversation has started getting a little uncomfortable for me as he had started addressing me Baby, Honey and what have you. I wanted to test this guy further and asked him for his last name. He said it was Cheung. And this was a total giveaway. Cheung is a cantonese surname. Koreans don't use Cheung. Koreans use Jung. But well, I kept quiet. 

Today, he texted me again and tell he bought some gifts for me and asked me for my address. I rejected him and told him if he is keen on being friends, I would prefer for it not to involve any gifts. He said I made him look stupid. In response, I told him I expect him to respect me and my wishes to keep things simple and with no gifts involved. He pressed hard but I refused. In the end, he relented. I knew how this conversation is gonna go and was ready for it. I went on to google his area code 917 in NYC and learned that it's an old area code started in the 90s. It is not issued to new applicants. He claimed to be 35 years old and it would not be possible for him to have studied there in the 90s. Some minutes later, he send me another text, asking me to purchase iTunes USD500 Apple e-Card or something and send it to him... so yeah, this is the final straw.

I blocked him.