The Star: May 06, 2021

The Star Thursday May 6 2021
6
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Student
scammed
of $30,000
• By Katie Harris
A CHRISTCHURCH
international student has been
scammed out of more than
$30,000 after a man tricked her
into believing they were dating
and encouraged her to hand
over cash for him to “invest” in
cryptocurrency.
The woman, 28-year-old
Christine, thought she had found
her match when a handsome
man began speaking to her on
Facebook in February.
Christine said he also claimed
to be Chinese, and told her he
was a busy, hard-working finance
worker that didn’t have time for
a “real” girlfriend and was scared
he’d end up alone.
Throughout their exchanges,
she said the man would pretend
that she was the only girl he was
speaking to and that he cared
about her.
“So I think, it’s a good thing.
Here’s someone, a companion
with me, because I am alone
studying in New Zealand, I
sometimes I feel lonely.”
Over their few months together,
the man said he liked
her and told her he wanted to be
with her.
As well as showing her attention,
Christine said he would
message her about the significant
growth and returns of his Bitcoin
investments.
“I didn’t see anyone in the real
life that could do that, so I asked
how and I wanted to learn that.”
Although she felt a little
uneasy about him, she ended up
giving him $2000 and about a
week later he sent her a screenshot
that appeared to show her
money increasing.
Part of her doubts stemmed
from his refusal to send her
videos of himself, and when she
questioned him about it she said
he would get angry and told
CON ARTIST: One of the photos the man used to trick the student.
her “If I want to give it to you [a
video] I will, don’t force me.”
Soon after her initial “investment”,
he convinced her to give
him even more money – a total
of around US$22,000, which is
about NZ$31,000.
The red flags surrounding
the romance increased when he
began creating multiple WeChat
profiles and pop-ups started appearing
on the site warning her
against sharing her bank details.
After discovering the truth,
Christine said she felt depressed
and said she cried every day.
In a note seen by the NZ
Herald, the woman’s doctor
asked for her to be allowed an
extension on an assignment as in
his opinion Christine was “medically
unfit”.
The student said she also
reported the incident to police in
Christchurch.
When she realised the deception,
Christine found that even
the image he’d gone by had been
stolen, and he’d assumed the
identity of a person on the Chinese
TV show Little Pop Star.
Internet safety organisation
Netsafe has recorded a 39 per
cent increase in romance scams
involving a financial loss between
2019 and 2020.
Chief executive Martin Cocker
warned that these type of scams
were becoming more frequent.
He said there were no “100 per
cent” telltale signs for identifying
scammers, but that reluctance to
provide more open communication,
like not going on video, can
indicate it’s a scammer.
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