Phone Scam (personal experience)

After some reflections and thoughts, I decide to jot down my real experience on a series of phone scams with tricked amount totaling 3,2600 HKD. It is a stigma for a student from top-tier university and I do hope readers won't disclose my personal info. Just take it as a lesson.

It began with my registration as a Tinder Gold member, a paid subscription program to get your profile boosted. I know Tinder is prevailing in HK and I do expect to expand my social circles during pandemic time. When I logged in and successfully matched some girls, I exchanged my WhatsApp number with a sexy girl named 詩詩 on 20th May. She said to me," I am doing assisted dating these days. Are you willing to help me? Then she sent a list of sex services she could provide to me. I suddenly realized that I was chatting with a whore. My relationship status remains A0 (meaning available to date and have no girlfriends before) and I was hooked by her hot and sexy photos sent to me. I was like a pathetic sex slave and failed to contain my fucking impulse. How could I easily be seduced and trust an unknown call girl on the internet. I made a deal with her, a whole sex service of 2 hours at 800 HKD. She asked me to come to her apartment at Tai Wai and I took MTR to her entrance of designated building, a 5-storey residential building with locked front door. It was 10pm at night. And someone named 蔡天成(based on ws info) claiming that he is the boss of mistress 詩詩 contacted me through a private unknown number(I can't call back and can't track the number). He requested me to pay the service fees first. I argued with him for a while. He negotiated politely with me and reclaimed that it is a compulsory company policy and applicable to new customers (seem like an once-for-all fraud right?) I walked back and forth on the streets debating with him. He promised to deliver quality service and guaranteed that their company has a daily cash flow of 1 million and cared nothing about this tiny 800 amount. Eventually I gave in and made the payment. It is awful that desire of having sex dominates a man's mind, under which circumstance he will act irrationally. He told me to buy an iTunes & App store card (not redeemable for cash, no refunds or exchanges and) worthy of 800 HKD in 7/11 and scratched the code area and sent the code to him. When I calmed down 2 or 3 days later, I found that paid cards are activated once payment, and input the code in the Apple center you can purchase apps, games music, movies or iCloud. Once I send the confidential code to them, they will use the code immediately and transfer it to cash (perhaps through some employees in the Apple corporation, like black money laundering). He requested my HKID and SID on the excuse to check my identity (if I am a cop). How could I be so stupid to circulate my personal info to them (could be used to borrow money from loan shark). He then explained to me with good manners (those liars are really hypocrite) that I should hand in 10,000 deposit in security that I won't take naked photos of the prostitute and do any violent harm to her. It is also to guarantee I am not drug-addicted and don't have any infectious disease. You see, he made up some just and cogent cause to collect cash pledge. No matter how I negotiated, he seemed quite articulate and fight back my defend. Anyway, a liar could come up with a million lies to convince you! I should see though this scam now. How could a sex deal require so much deposit. A cheap whore doesn't deserve it at all. It is completely in vain for my requests of not handing in any deposit. Mr. 蔡 pretended to be so compassionate of my situation and said he would struggle for my rights with the company. And when he called back, he just apologized to me with a disgusting sincere tongue that the company accountant is so tough and no room for breaking the rules. How the boss reprimanded him not obeying the rules to request for me! Fuck the liar, utilizing my sympathy. He successfully convinced me that how trustworthy he was, how he thought over for customers. He said," You have my words. How could I lie to you if I seek long-lasting loyal customer relationship." I did what he told me and sent 2 Apple cards worthy 5,000 respectively to the hooker though WhatsApp. You think the phone fishing ends? Swindlers have far more tricks to play! I mentioned that he collected my personal info before 10,000 deposit explanation, he now said that his hands fail to affirm my identity and request me to hand in a deposit of 20,000. Come on, like a domino effect that a scam links with another. He promised that it would be eventual guarantee deposit and won't ask for more. I spent the entire night disputing with him and the result is stalemate. He said that in consideration of your student identity, we only requested 20,000. And all the money will be refunded to me by the whore after completing the service. He said the whore just claimed 30,000 cash and even took a photo for me. He proposed that the hooker would pay 10,000 for me as her personal guarantee. I needed to deal with the rest 10,000. I was enraged and fed up with long periods of negotiation (last for 2 hours). I took a taxi back to my dorm. You see, I hardly deal with cheaters before and underestimate how evil a human could be. Sexual desire weakens my sense and I did all the hooker require me to do. I could hardly tell kind from evil. You need to find a way to get rid of loneliness especially during covid-19, and something meaningful and interesting will definitely help, chatting nd making love with your girlfriend will help a lot. Otherwise, your mind will be occupied with tedious feelings, escalating anxiety disorder. And I wrongly tried to work it out with trusting an unknown prostitute on the phone.

It was a nightmare for me. Anxiety for losing the paid 10,000 made me restless and I got up at 6am in the morning of 21th May, doing some advanced Cantonese course homework to ease my mind. After 2 hours' reading and listening Cantonese dialogue, I fell asleep. Waking up at 11am and start to contact Mr. 蔡. He just told me how much effort he put into struggling for my requests and his boss turned it down ruthlessly. He was even reprimanded for not following the rules stipulated by the company. You see, the liar is leveraging my sympathy. I started to trust him again, oh my god, just couldn't believe how stupid and reckless I was at that time. Then he kept proposing that if I settled down the 10,000, I could fuck the whore. So, I went to Fo Tan station and purchased another 2 Apple cards with face value of 5,000. When I sent the card confidential codes to him, I thought too naively that the hot mistress with round tits and sweet pussy gonna come and pick me up (she said the company sent a driver to deliver her to me, and she waited in the car until I finished payment--later I realized it is bullshit since the girl would not keep waiting for 1 hour at a car! unreasonable at all cuz a true whore must have other clients to serve, why waste time on me). Later I was told by 詩詩 that the financial secretary caught her transferring 10,000 on behalf of me. What a coincidence lol. And I must hand in this amount of money before we meet. I was almost out of temper and control. I started to realize that it was a phone scam and those whores didn't exist at all. And I was running out of my money (all belonged to my dad. He gave me as pocket money and support my daily expenditures. I owe him many regrets and apologies when I recall the whole thing). But I was too eager for sex and some scenes of porn videos I've watched just appeared in my mind. They seem very appealing to me, all of the sex techniques. I was a wild animal without consciousness, integrity and sanity and determined to borrow some money from friends. I turned to one of my best friends, Alex. I explained everything to him in details. I could remember my voice was anxious and nervous. He told me that I could possibly get involved in a fraud and I should think about who can help, HK police office or appellate court? And I should check if prostitution is legal in HK and whoremasters and sex work clients are illegal or not (later I find out that prostitution itself is legal but the biz of organizing whores like opening a whorehouse is illegal, which makes Mr. 蔡 commit crimes). I told Alex that I still reserve hope for them and would risk my life on it and see if it is possible to get back my deposits. What a ridiculous thought of relying on whores! He stopped persuading me and transferred 3,000 RMB to me. Together with my remaining money, I finished 10,000 payment. And as you could probably expect, a couple of minutes later( I presume they safely freeze my apple card and transfer the money out), Mr. 蔡 informed me that I should pay additional funds regarding the hotel management and service fees, 30,000 HKD. It means I should take the whore back to a hotel and I could withdraw 60,000 from the cashier. I was stunned and eventually realized he is a cheater, fooling me since the commencement. It is my first time to experience a phone scam, and how could I voluntarily submit 30,800 HKD. And it is unlikely to track the money for a student! And I don't want ask the police to help cuz I have a reputation to maintain and it is so embarrassing to make it public. I lost temper and shouting at the liar. He just replied politely and even apologized to me, blaming everything to the rigorous company policies. I guess he must be pretentious and brag out how he cheated a tertiary institution student like a fool! I gave him an ultimatum that he sent someone to take back the apple cards, or the deal is cancelled.

I came back and watched some porn videos to relieve my loneliness and refrain my desire for sex. It was 21th May. At night, another girl named 茜茜 added my WhatsApp through Tinder. She was very proactive and seemed to take good care of me. After some chit chats, I called her up and talked to her, a not very articulate but talkative voice as I could remember. I asked her to come to my dorm and she said yes. After arriving at the University station, her agent called me and required me to buy an Apple itunes card worthy of 500HKD. After sending the card with codes, the same scenario as 詩詩 occurred. The agent asked me to pay a deposit of 10,000HKD. I was outraged and stated firmly that under no circumstances would I pay. And I said I was cheated by 蔡 today. Later the agent passed the phone to his boss(Mr. 雷), he told me that he know the guy well, a liar without conscience and targeted students for money fraud. He boasted himself as the godfather pf 14K（三合会）,he dealt with a similar case before. And he is willing to offer me some help. As long as I could settle the deposits of 20,000HKD, he will call on a crowd of gangsters and drove me to 蔡's place (在尖沙咀的半岛酒店）,forced the guy to pay back my money and kneed to beg my forgiveness. After taking back my 30,800, he would give back the 20,000 deposits to me and all I need to do is celebrate it with the group of gangsters and invited them for dinner. Do you believe in this story? Completely nonsense, right? I don't know why I could kinda believe this fairy tale. 茜茜 made a phone call to me later, saying that she could pay 10,000 HKD on behalf of me, and I just need to figure out the remaining 10,000. The next morning, Sunday (22th May 2022), I woke up early as yesterday and called 茜茜 at around 1130am. I said I agreed the terms and I would negotiate with Mr. 雷 and argued down the guaranteed amount to 10,000. Around 1 pm, I asked 茜茜 to pay and she sent me 2 cards with codes. But Mr. 雷 was strict with the prescribed rules and insisted on me paying the remaining 10,000. And it entered a stag situation. I explained to 茜茜 that I ran out of my money and the only way is to turn to private lenders for loans (the interest rate is extremely high, it could be 1500HKD per day if I borrow 10,000). And I told them I turned to all of friends but failed. It still took some time. And I never replied to their messages because I it is bullshit that they helped me without any compensation. And ensuring me that they will find 蔡 and beat his ass is unreasonable as well.

The fraud has not ended yet. Around 4pm, I was appealed by another girl named 安安. I told her that I was cheated and want no more lies. She seemed quite considerate and said she had no agent and no deposits would be required. And we came to an agreement and I went to 九龙塘 and bought an Apple card worth 800 and sent the codes to her. But she still waited in the house and after 3 minutes, she phoned me and requested 2,000 deposits. Oh my god! I could definitely tell that she was another liar. A disgusting and vicious thing is after some invalid talks, she asked a fleabag to horror me. And I quickly took MTR and back to my university.

I know how stupid and un-sophisticated I am. And this sequence of frauds is out of my capacity and I eventually determined to tell my parents all the events I went through, fairly and sincerely at around 6pm. Father listened to it calmly and analyzed objectively. He thought those guys may not be in HK. Some of them could be Taiwanese and it is nearly impossible to track back my money. And he stated that I am partly involved in HK Mafia (sex trade and gangs). Once those bad guys leaked my personal info out(my HK passport and SID), it could be remarkable stigmas and spots that I can't easily eliminate. It will bring dishonor and disgrace to me and my families. And if the sex trade indeed happened and the whore serviced, the scenes could be recorded by cameras and it is a big threat against me. What's worse, the safety and hygiene issues are serious. What if I am kidnapped? After hearing his rational words, I calmed down and started feeling very regretful. And I promised I would never contact those liars and respond to their messages. It is a costly memorial and hope readers could learn a lesson and don't circulate my privacy out.