Asia’s scam crisis: fake IDs, bank letters, sob stories among ‘big red flags’

Undeterred by crackdowns and rescue of victims, online fraudsters – who understand the emotions of their victims – are getting sophisticated with scams

Scam-prevention experts urge potential victims to ‘do your research’ and discuss ways, tools to identify ‘big red flags’ amid fraudsters’ intricate lies

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Scammers are employing more creative methods to hoodwink their victims. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 11:30am, 4 Dec 2022Updated: 11:40am, 4 Dec 2022

Nop’s online advert offering land for sale outside Bangkok almost immediately caught the attention of the wrong people: scammers.

Within hours, they had tried to reel him in with a tale of an Afghan family fleeing the Taliban, with millions of dollars to spend in a hurry in Thailand.

Scam networks have tapped the power of the internet to target victims in Asia and beyond. They sift through social media profiles to hook their marks via adverts, posts or pleas for work.

Experts say the criminals understand the emotions of their victims – trust, guilt, greed, love and loneliness – and weaponise an online space where their targets interact most freely, giving away clues to their desires and habits with each tap of the phone.

“People are hard on the victims, asking ‘why would they fall for these scams?’” said Jan Santiago of US-based Global Anti-Scam group that has taken thousands of calls from people fearing they have been caught up in Asian scams.

“We shop, bank, date and invest online … scammers are really good at taking advantage of this – it is their full-time job to gain your trust and fake all these things,” he said.