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Old friend scam


 

Scams, you can’t avoid them. Throughout our time online, we can see all forms ranging from genital enlargement to get-rich schemes. These days, scams are getting more detailed, trying their best to be genuine as possible so that they can achieve their objective, whether to hack your device or steal your hard-earned money. These scams are ever-present regardless of whether you are online or offline.

Scams a few years ago limited themselves to calls and messages however, now, they are appearing sporadically through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and the ilk. WhatsApp scams are usually a common sight in Brunei as most use them to communicate. Throughout my time using WhatsApp, there will be a random text from a foreign number (usually in African countries) promoting pornographic content or selling crypto. These will often happen in groups rather than through a direct message. 


One of the recently discovered is what I like to call the “old friend scam” where someone claims that they are their old friend and want to reconnect through a new number registered in Hong Kong + (829) 633-1926. The text sent by this unknown chick is in Malay to make it more genuine and believable, it includes a statement where she changed her number. At the bottom of it is a link titled “Click free consultation1”

This scam is common as there are many variations of it, ranging from claiming to be a long-lost family member to a former lover asking for help. Though some are accustomed to it and would immediately delete and block this number, some fall victim to it. The best-case scenario is you get a virus on your device and in the worst-case scenario you get hacked and lose all access to your social media.

A frightening circumstance to be in, all your private information in the hands of an unknown assailant. What’s more alarming is that scams like these will continue to be improved to the point that we can’t discern whether they are a scam. As such, whenever we receive an unknown text, we must be cautious about it, and observe it to determine its legitimacy.


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