Despite multiple efforts taken to hunt the syndicates of online scams, they seem to be “reproducing” themselves after getting caught. It’s like they leave a legacy behind for someone else to take over if things go south, and every time they return, they come back smarter.
Just recently, a Malaysian, Afiqah shared a couple of screenshots between her mother and the scammers. This time, the scammers came up with a rare modus operandi, by pretending to be kidnappers, and since scammers are always after money, they asked for a “ransom”.
The scammers didn’t waste any time and started the conversation by sending an image of 2 men holding an unseen woman at knifepoint, with a message to intimidate the victim.
“Your daughter is in my hands. If you’re playing around, we’ll kill her.”
To elevate the anxiety, the scammers also called the victim multiple times but Afiqah’s mother did not bother to pick them up.
“They think my mom is stupid enough not to recognise her own daughter,” Afiqah tweeted.
Speaking to WORLD OF BUZZ, Afiqah said that she was not with her mother when the latter received threatening texts from the scammers.
“My mother is performing Hajj prayers in Mecca at the moment,” Afiqah told WORLD OF BUZZ.
The screenshots were sent by her mother abroad, and Afiqah decided to share the scammers’ MO when many netizens on Twitter also revealed that their mother has received messages in a similar manner. Another netizen pointed out that the scammers went the extra mile to convince and intimidate her mother into sending “ransom”.
“They even had this background noise where a woman is heard screaming. They usually target parents who have kids at school,” the netizen explained.
Similarly, scammers tend to call the victims and rush them into sending them the money. Again, the netizen’s mother also did not bother to answer the calls. You can read Afiqah’s tweet below, and what other netizens who experienced the same thing had to say.
While my mom kena macam ni ? dia ingat mak aku bodo agaknya tak kenal anak sendiri. https://t.co/eSRvwDdxqa pic.twitter.com/ewo7Q2MPG6
— Ar ｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ (@afiqahrsle) June 26, 2023
If the scammers can come up with such a threat, who knows what length they can resort to in the future out of desperation?
Fellow Malaysians, have you encountered a similar situation when receiving a text from an unknown number?
