Help in finding the scammer

[JLBS]

Hi some months ago in Singapore I was introduced to an expat called Ross who owned a company called <redacted> he told me he was a trader in commodities, the conversation when on and I told him about my brother in law who was in oil , this seemed to peak his interests over the coming weeks he would call talk about the rugby etc friendly polite guy, once he seemed to gain my trust he then asked about my brother in law who was in oil, he claimed he had a contract to sell but his buyer had dropped out, would I introduce him to my brother in law, didn’t see an issue with it and did so, my brother in law then said the guy seemed to know what he was talking about and they may do some business.

I then got a call from Ross to say that he was sending over a commission agreement as I should make some money from this , I was taken a back but accepted the agreement and signed this .

So things where progressing and documents seemed to be in place, Ross called me and said he was waiting a payment in would I lend him 5000 USD I did dither a little bit but in the end relented as he said his bank was having an issue and needed to cover a bill.

Long and short of it is that Ross was caught out by my brother in laws company providing forged documents .. haven’t been able to find the guy since and he isn’t answering my calls ..

I’ve tried to find him but nothing comes up anywhere all there is a PO Box type thing I did however search his name and Singapore as it came up with <redacted> and I think I have been truly scammed , can you help me to find out where this man is or can you help me to and advise if I should contact the police , my wife is giving me a hard time on this and I feel very foolish being caught out by someone Help

[Strong Eagle]

Friend, you have been scammed. Consider the money you have lost to be the tuition for getting a degree from the school of hard knocks.

Consider the things that you didn't do that you now know that you should do. You didn't do your due diligence to verify the man. You released information about your brother to a man you did not know. You bought into a sob story. And you failed to create a financial trail to know where the money was deposited when you gave it to him. Most of all, you didn't listen to your gut and the red flags that were raised when a relative stranger asks you for $5000.

Your only recourse is to file a report with the police, but understand that the chances of the scammer being caught are less than you winning the Singapore Pools TOTO lottery. Scammers are very good about covering their tracks. As they say in some circles, "Sorry, and toughshitskipisselsprung."

[JLBS]

Thanks but he seems to live in Singapore and from the pictures it’s the same man so surely someone must know him ?

[Strong Eagle]

Thanks but he seems to live in Singapore and from the pictures it’s the same man so surely someone must know him ?

What he seems and what he is are likely two separate things. Unless you saw his IC card or passport, you don't even know who he is, let alone where he lives. For all you know, he lives in Hong Kong and drops in every once in a while to run a scam. Whoever introduced you was probably in on the scam.

[smoulder]

Kind of reminds me of someone who randomly contacted me on WhatsApp a few months ago. She claimed to be a Singapore citizen working in Hong Kong. Claimed to be the CIO of at a particular mid size MNC which is in the business of data center colo. I looked up the company's website - the CIO is a man. Red flag one.

The Bank that I work for actually does utilize some services of the company that she claimed to be CIO of. When I mentioned it, she didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about. Red flag number 2.

Then after a few days of small talk and asking me what I thought about cryptocurrency, she claimed that her company was in discussion with a customer which is supposedly a large crypto trading platform and asked me what I thought about. I gave her my opinion - she mentioned that she valued it and gave me the impression that she was considering my opinion while evaluating whether to sign up the customer. Red flag number three - I'm a stranger to her with no verifiable credentials in the related matter. Just a lay man with an opinion.

Next day she claimed to have signed a contract - sent me photos of the alleged contract.... Red flag number four - sharing confidential material with a stranger.

So the next day after the "contract signing", she was already in the data center ready to onboard the customer and do the data transfer. Which is bullshit - things are not so dynamic. Red flag number 5.

I asked her why she needed to be physically in the data center - I can't recall fully what she said, but basically the answer wasn't convincing to me, an infrastructure architect who's set up infrastructure and connectivity as well as managed cloud data centers. Let alone why the CIO needed to be around. Red flag 6 and 7.

A few days later, she mentioned that she had noticed that the trading platform has a big customer who trades large volumes and that she noticed that she could predict when the currency value would go up or down. All this because she has access to the data center.... Red flags 8 and 9. Access to customer data as a service provider (I asked her about it and received a lame response) and that she can access the data because she can get into the data center

And finally she started sending me poorly constructed "application screenshots" showing "trades" that she had supposedly done by predicting when the currency would go up and down along with the "profits".... They looked completely fake with things like missing commas in the trade values. Red flag 10. Next was to ask me if I would like to trade.... At which point I didn't bother responding. I knew early on from the red flags that this was a scam.... I played along waiting to see what it would turn out to be....

[smoulder]

Oh some more red flags - days after data migration, the service was already live

[JLBS]

Sorry don’t understand your message ?

[smoulder]

Sorry don’t understand your message ?

It means that you will have to catch the red flags before they scam you.

[malcontent]

Anytime anyone has ever attempted to scam me, I always adopt a poverty mindset. You need to have money to be scammed, and in my mind, I have no money at all… in fact, my credit card is frozen because I haven’t paid it on time… I am in a serious financial bind and don’t know what I’m gonna do. This works every time. By the time they give up on me, they feel sorry for me.

Another great rule of thumb: never let someone you don’t know take you down a path that they determined. It’s truly a golden rule.

[malcontent]

Kind of reminds me of someone who randomly contacted me on WhatsApp a few months ago. She claimed to be a Singapore citizen working in Hong Kong. Claimed to be the CIO of at a particular mid size MNC which is in the business of data center colo. I looked up the company's website - the CIO is a man. Red flag one.

The Bank that I work for actually does utilize some services of the company that she claimed to be CIO of. When I mentioned it, she didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about. Red flag number 2.

Then after a few days of small talk and asking me what I thought about cryptocurrency, she claimed that her company was in discussion with a customer which is supposedly a large crypto trading platform and asked me what I thought about. I gave her my opinion - she mentioned that she valued it and gave me the impression that she was considering my opinion while evaluating whether to sign up the customer. Red flag number three - I'm a stranger to her with no verifiable credentials in the related matter. Just a lay man with an opinion.

Next day she claimed to have signed a contract - sent me photos of the alleged contract.... Red flag number four - sharing confidential material with a stranger.

So the next day after the "contract signing", she was already in the data center ready to onboard the customer and do the data transfer. Which is bullshit - things are not so dynamic. Red flag number 5.

I asked her why she needed to be physically in the data center - I can't recall fully what she said, but basically the answer wasn't convincing to me, an infrastructure architect who's set up infrastructure and connectivity as well as managed cloud data centers. Let alone why the CIO needed to be around. Red flag 6 and 7.

A few days later, she mentioned that she had noticed that the trading platform has a big customer who trades large volumes and that she noticed that she could predict when the currency value would go up or down. All this because she has access to the data center.... Red flags 8 and 9. Access to customer data as a service provider (I asked her about it and received a lame response) and that she can access the data because she can get into the data center

And finally she started sending me poorly constructed "application screenshots" showing "trades" that she had supposedly done by predicting when the currency would go up and down along with the "profits".... They looked completely fake with things like missing commas in the trade values. Red flag 10. Next was to ask me if I would like to trade.... At which point I didn't bother responding. I knew early on from the red flags that this was a scam.... I played along waiting to see what it would turn out to be....

Ha… reminds me of this comedy skit:

[malcontent]

Hi some months ago in Singapore I was introduced to an expat called Ross who owned a company called <redacted> he told me he was a trader in commodities, the conversation when on and I told him about my brother in law who was in oil , this seemed to peak his interests over the coming weeks he would call talk about the rugby etc friendly polite guy, once he seemed to gain my trust he then asked about my brother in law who was in oil, he claimed he had a contract to sell but his buyer had dropped out, would I introduce him to my brother in law, didn’t see an issue with it and did so, my brother in law then said the guy seemed to know what he was talking about and they may do some business.

I then got a call from Ross to say that he was sending over a commission agreement as I should make some money from this , I was taken a back but accepted the agreement and signed this .

So things where progressing and documents seemed to be in place, Ross called me and said he was waiting a payment in would I lend him 5000 USD I did dither a little bit but in the end relented as he said his bank was having an issue and needed to cover a bill.

Long and short of it is that Ross was caught out by my brother in laws company providing forged documents .. haven’t been able to find the guy since and he isn’t answering my calls ..

I’ve tried to find him but nothing comes up anywhere all there is a PO Box type thing I did however search his name and Singapore as it came up with <redacted> and I think I have been truly scammed , can you help me to find out where this man is or can you help me to and advise if I should contact the police , my wife is giving me a hard time on this and I feel very foolish being caught out by someone Help

You should report this to the police, but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope. I know it feels just awful and it’s not easy to let it go - - but the sooner you can do that, the sooner you’ll feel better about it.

Treat it like course fees paid for an important lesson… and be glad it wasn’t more. The person will get caught eventually, they always do.