A 71-year-old retiree in Singapore, Huang Xuilian, was scammed of $80,000 by a man pretending to be Taiwanese singer Fei Yu-ching, claiming that he wanted to marry her, according to Shin Min Daily News.
Huang, who had been receiving treatment for her cancer at the time, said that she received a text message from the man last August, who claimed that he was the veteran Taiwanese singer.
She started having regular conversations with the man that she thought was the real Fei because she was a huge fan of the singer.
The man later confessed his feelings to Huang and told her that he wanted to travel to Singapore and pay her a visit.
She believed him and got into a relationship with him – her friends had voiced out their concerns to her and warned her but she simply brushed them off.
The man then urged Huang to open a bank account, which she did and activated the online banking function for the account before giving the man access to it.
Huang then transferred about $20,000 into the account after closing her other bank accounts.
The man then told her that his own bank account had been frozen and that he needed money to retrieve a “stuck” package at Singapore Customs, and Huang then transferred another $12,000 into the account.
On 23 September 2022, Huang noticed that $11,934 had been withdrawn from the bank account and confronted the man, but he managed to convince her that he truly loved her and was not out to cheat her.
She then gave him another $10,000.
It was only after she had lost about $80,000, did she finally realise that she had fallen victim to a scam and that the man whom she thought was Fei Yu-ching wasn’t real at all.
The man then eventually became uncontactable and Huang then lodged a police report.
As recently as 5 February, Huang was still trying to contact the man to ask him to return her money because she needed it to pay for her cancer treatment and chemotherapy, but it was to no avail and she got no response.