Woman arranges to meet Tinder date during solo travel in Taiwan, ends up feeling ‘so scared’
A Singaporean woman’s pursuit of love did not end well after she fell victim to a scammer in Taiwan.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the 24-year-old graduate student was in Tainan alone for a holiday and had arranged to meet a man that she befriended on dating app Tinder.
Ms Zhao agreed to meet the man, known as Chen, at a convenience store on Oct 31, at around 9pm.
Chen, who was supposed to act as a tour guide, had also claimed to be model at a hotel and asked Ms Zhao to transfer a “meetup fee”.
When Ms Zhao arrived at the store, Chen informed her that he would not be able to make it as something had cropped up.
He then sent her a video via Line, showing a bloodied person getting beaten up for “refusing to cooperate”. The message demanded Ms Zhao’s cooperation and instructed her to buy NT$30,000 (around S$1,261) worth of game points.
Panicking, Ms Zhao rushed to make the purchase at the convenience store. However, staff sensed something amiss after noticing how nervous she looked and called the police.
In response to queries, a spokesman for Tainan City Police Department confirmed that they received a report from a staff member at a convenience store along Minzu Road about how a possible scam victim in the shop.
Two police officers who rushed down to the scene learnt that Ms Zhao had travelled to Taiwan for a holiday and befriended a man on Tinder.
According to Taiwanese media reports, footage from the police officers’ body-worn cameras show the woman claiming to be “so scared” at the time of the incident.
When police officers told the woman to block Chen, she said she was worried that he would still be able to track her down because she had sent him photos of her identification card.
Police officers kept reassuring the woman and said investigations revealed that the man was not in Tainan at all.
Although Ms Zhao did not believe the police at first, she eventually realised that it was all a scam. She also said she had felt like she was falling in love, but did not expect to encounter a scammer.
Local police sent Ms Zhao back to where she was staying in Tainan and she thanked them for their assistance.
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