Hello Friends
Thank you to gokussj4af for mentioning his detailed story - helped me to pick up and dodge an almost identical scam.
I'll detail my interaction with my Tinder mistress so that maybe it can help someone somewhere in the world avoid a similar fate.
In addition, here is a link to the best summary of this type of scam that I have found on the web so you, the reader, can get a detailed overview of the honey trap scam and how it plays out:
bkk-lifestyle.com/knowledge/the-tinder-forex-scam-how-attractive-chinese-women-lure-men-into-a-honey-trap
- Anyways, on with the story -
Feb I matched with a Tinder Gold profile called Zzoe zoe (picture of a facebook photo as of 7 Feb 2021 attached) Tinder profile also had the same background on facebook - that of a cliffside view. Profile user location was from Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur . Match was in Mid- December 2020.
After a short while chatting the scammer asked to move to whatsapp. Scammer alleged profession was the beauty industry as an affluent self employed makeup artist, also side gigs in property and trading forex. Hobbies/ interests - Tennis, Marvel, Pokemon. Family - 1 sibling, father deceased, mother - whom in initial conversations went shopping with over the Christmas holidays in Singapore and I received photos of an expensive watch and bag 'Zoe' bought as gifts for her mom. (Could all be made up).
Apologies - deleted the other photos I received and the phone number but noticeable indicators on almost all photos received were the very large oval glasses, red lipstick, rose-gold necklace chain with a rose gold ring connected to it.
Through January 2021 scammer and I were talking regularly including the odd weekends. I'd occasionally receive additional photos of 'Zoe' out with friends or selfies (not lewd). Written English was pretty good however the scammer avoided moving to voice or video chats and when questioned, the one, female (this does not necessarily mean it is the girl in the photo, or a female phone user i.e could be a pre-recorded message or a male user using a female accomplice/ voice modifier) few seconds voice note I received was that her spoken english was not very good and when probed further dodged the issue. We continued exclusively with typed conversations.
On occasion when talking about their day, they would drop a casual mention of an upcoming forex trade, and later their wins, that they were doing and how well they had done in the past, with the assistance of a broker , (misspelled each time borker) Mr Gavin, who the scammer had' met through an aunt'. I didn't ask any further questions, it wasn't a topic that interested me.
Fast forward to the first week of Feb and now another casual forex drop along with, for the first time, a screen shot of their winnings. Now when I asked further I get a story of her using an automated MT5 app and that a minimum of $3000 is needed to get started, she can show me how its done, Mr Gavin the borker etc. Also now casually dropping heart-based emojis during conversations.
Fast forward to yesterday where now its $500 to get started because she had just learned a new strategy from Mr Gavin and wanted to share with her friends. So when I asked for more info I received a link to crm.garsonforex.com (pls dont click this without a vpn and the basic pc/internet protection)
I'm the type who does due diligence before entering anything financial so a quick google search of this company brought me here. When informing 'zoe' that I hadn't entered any information into the form and also sending her this site, asking her why there are similarities between our over a month long interaction, Mr Gavin, Garsonforex being mentioned etc. I got a 'I am sad, dont you trust me message'.
When still pushing for answers I was left on unread - I assume blocked cos the scammer knew the jig was up.
Hope that helps. go well, go safe
Very glad that you dodged the bullet on this one. Therefore, it's crucial for people to bring up all these companies that the scammers are using. However, they move pretty fast but I hope so potential victims can read more about it and do their due diligences before transferring money to these crooks.
