Scammer impersonates Aileen Tan's husband on WhatsApp, asks for money and threatens divorce
She shares her experience to alert others and offers advice to avoid falling victim to similar scams
“Let’s get a divorce.”
That was one of the text messages local actress Aileen Tan received from a man identifying as her husband on WhatsApp.
However, the culprit was a scammer who hacked into her husband’s WhatsApp and impersonated him. The scammer asked Tan to transfer money to a bank account in Hong Kong and threatened a divorce when she had not done so.
A close encounter with a scammer
In an Instagram post on 1 November, the 57-year-old shared more details about the incident and issued a cautionary message to her followers not to transfer money to the scammer.
She recounted, “Thankfully, I was watching the movie 'Confinement' and didn’t have time to bother about him.
“Afterwards, my husband personally called me and said that the scammer had already called his sister in Hong Kong, asking her to transfer money to a bank account. These scammers are so despicable. Be careful everyone, don't be tricked."
In her Instagram post, Tan went a step further by sharing a screenshot of the text exchange with the scammer and it can be seen that she had attempted to call him via WhatsApp.
Attempt to steal HK$10,000 foiled
The veteran actress told Lianhe Zaobao that the scammer asked for HK$10,000 (S$1,746).
“He said he was buying something online and wanted me to pay for him first, and he’ll return the cash to me later,” she said.
The scammer passed her the account number of a bank in Hong Kong and asked her to transfer the money. As Tan was watching the movie and had forgotten how to do an overseas transfer, she told him she’ll do it later.
However, she got suspicious when the scammer asked the money to be transferred before 6pm as she knew her husband was at work and wondered why he suddenly needed the money.
The situation took an unexpected turn when she received a WhatsApp voice message from her real husband who warned her not to send any money.
Tan was initially confused over what was going on, but when she met up with her husband, she checked his phone and couldn’t find the WhatsApp chat she had with the scammer. Thankfully, neither Tan nor her sister-in-law were tricked.
The couple reported the incident to WhatsApp, and made a police report.
Tan also revealed that her husband once connected to the web version of WhatsApp on his work computer, but perhaps it might have been a fake phishing site.
She also warned, on her Instagram post, “Don’t link your WhatsApp to your computer or iPad.”
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