A 50-year-old Malaysian woman fell victim to a scam where she thought local Mediacorp actor Desmond Tan wanted to pursue her and start a relationship, she lost RM60,000 (S$20,000).
The woman, who identified herself as Kai Li, told Lianhe Wanbao that she received private Facebook messages from “her idol” Desmond Tan on October last year, thanking her for her years of support, to which she “was ecstatic”.
She added that: “Since it came from his verified account, I believed him.”
The fake Desmond then requested to carry over their private conversations onto other messaging apps like WeChat and Line, charming her with sweet nothings like “I love you so much” and calling her “baby” and etcetera.
Thus, they began an online relationship.
A week later, the imposter asked Kai Li if she wanted to meet him in Shanghai, and he said she would only need to pay 30% of the expenses, which would be around RM7,000. However the trip “didn’t pan out” and she couldn’t get back the money that she transferred to him.
The fake Desmond then explained that his management agency made a mistake about the Shanghai trip, he then bemoaned his financial troubles and asked her for RM3,000, to which she agreed to transfer and did.
He then invited her to Shanghai again to celebrate Christman and New Year and she sent him another RM10,000 as “travelling expenses”, but that trip didn’t happen as well.
And so fake Desmond explained that his management agency has ruined both overseas trips and he wanted to “terminate his contract with them” because he was unhappy. He added that once he is unshackled from the proverbial chains of his contract, he could openly “romance her”.
He then asked her for RM40,000.
They “dated” for 8 months, during which she sold her car, pawned her jewellery and even borrowed money from illegal moneylenders (loan sharks) to send the Desmond Tan imposter a total of RM60,000.
When she found out that she had fallen victim to a scam, she blamed herself for being foolish.
The imposter has presumably hacked into the real Desmond’s Facebook to start the initial conversation with Kai Li, before carrying their conversation onto his own messaging platform.
The real Desmond Tan told Lianhe Wanbao that he was unaware of Kai Li’s experience, but he adds that he is worried for her and feels very sorry as well.
Tan added: “I want to tell everyone that I don’t use social media channels to communicate in private..
He also added that he would never borrow money from his fans.