MALAYSIANS are good when it comes to looking for love in all the wrong places. And they fall for it in a big way, too.
Police data shows that between 2022 and June 24, 2024, 52 people parted with their senses and sen — make that RM5 million — in a "pig butchering" scheme, a fake love and investment fattening plan that takes the victim to the slaughterhouse like the fattened animal.
No one knows how many surrendered their hearts and wallets this way before 2022, but your guess is as good as ours.
With the advent of cryptocurrencies, love scams are that much easier to carry out.
But a question remains: how does one fall in love without catching sight of the person one is in love with?
By way of snapshots real and fake in dating apps, it appears. Some of the dating sites do come with love scam warnings, yet many swoon over their dubious dates.
And there is a pattern, too, by the scammers to get their lovers dizzy with love. First some wholesome chats in the dating app, then a switch to WhatsApp texts to boost trust and perhaps even video calls to get "love" to another level.
At this point, the script calls for some investment scheme or cryptocurrency trading to be introduced.
Numbed by the joy of love, the victim parts with a huge stash of cash in batches: first thousands, then tens of thousands and finally, hundreds of thousands.
Just as it happened to a 54-year-old plantation manager who fell for a charming and attractive "businesswoman".
Some video calls later, she went for the cryptocurrency trading kill.
First it was RM10,500 and then RM207,000, all that remained of his life savings.
When the scammer demanded RM225,000 more, he refused. Only to find his money and "love" gone forever. We are glad his sense kicked in at this point, though a late stage it was.
Others have done worse by borrowing from "Ah Longs" to keep their love burning. It is not too long after that when they discover that the heart isn't the only one which gets broken.
It will be unfair to say that all digital dating is dangerous. Neither would we advise people not to fall for someone whom they meet online.
Exercise great care, is what we will say. Love online is like investment there. It can be too good to be true. Just like the love of the charming and attractive "businesswoman".
As the police have been repeatedly telling us, the love syndicates are highly organised gangs operating from many locations.
Their dialogue is well-scripted. And when the love scam pattern becomes well-known, a twist is introduced: The businesswoman turns into a lover in distress pleading for huge sums of money to seek her "release".
Here is a piece of advice for people who look for love in the digital world.
By all means fall in love, but keep your money. It is cheaper to mend a broken heart than a depleted bank account.
Be that as it may, at some point the digital love affair must end up in the physical world. Because it is there that we live.
And it is there, too, that the happily-ever-after part of our love story gets written.