NSW Credit-for-Sex Scam using LINE and Apple iTunes

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cxyang

Member
30 May 2015
3
1
1
Hi guys,

I would like to share my story of an incident where I was involved in a serious scam which I was too naive and stupid to realise until I took the time to research the tactic to only realise it was a scam that already exists but it was to my stupidity that I was unaware of it. I hope you may take the time to read the short story of mine if time persists.

The scenario is similar to the following if you wish to Google it: Scam Alert Singapore > Credit for Sex Scam
Note: All the payments are conducted by Gift Cards (which I regret)

It all started where I was lured into making an initial payment of $300AUD by the girl (through sending serial payments of iTunes Gift Cards) and providing my mobile number (whom I contacted via social platform LINE).

Afterwards I was given a call from the so-called boss (FROM A BLOCKED NUMBER) to make a secondary deposits of altogether $2000AUD for a supposed "security" fee which I was told would be returned once the service is over. At the time I was insufficient to pay the $2000 and so only had $700 at the time and so the girl offered to chip-in for the remaining $1300 with the condition I do not tell his boss under any circumstance. I was at first convinced there isn't suspicious going on as she offered to help. Afterwards, a few hours of waiting later the "boss" contacted me again and told me that he has discovered the excess $1300 was covered by the girl and thus I was required to make the $1300 payments by myself.

At the time, I had no means of providing the $1300 until a later date so I went again two days afterwards to settle the excess payments. Afterwards I made the payment, again I was told by the 'boss' of the operation that due to a previous incident whereby one of their workers were involved in an incident, I was required to pay another $2000. However at this stage, I was unable to do so and threatened to contact the police. The scammer indicated that the money will not be returned if the police is contacted and that he has a good relationship with the police.

I was negligent of the whole situation and wished to claim back the funds and thus abided to the request of the scammer which resulted me in totalling to a net loss of $2800 which is a significant amount for a university student, however I do take it as a costly life lesson learnt to not contact people over the Internet.

All in all, I have already sent an email to the police regarding the above matter though am not awfully hopeful of any possible outcome. I do however intend on contacting Apple and see what they can do to possibly help.
I do have all the relevant details including conversation history(although it is in Chinese) and copy of receipts for each individual purchase in my possession.

If anyone is able to provide any form of assistance or help that can assist in retrieving the funds, or have encountered a similar experience, I would greatly appreciate any form of help. I did have a look online to find out that Blocked numbers can be traced (by law enforcement agencies) however the only worry is IF the caller is from OUTSIDE the country which may make it more difficult to chase up the situation. The other possible idea I have in mind is IF POSSIBLE getting Apple to track down the IP address of where the gift card-serials were redeemed from. Though either options, I'm still unsure about.

Anywhat, I thank everyone in advance for any help supplied and taking the time to read the above. I also apologise for any grammatical errors, etc if they exist.

Many thanks guys!
 

Garychung444

Member
14 June 2015
1
0
1
Hi, I'm the guy who got scammed recently, just read your post, wondering if you called the police in the end?