I met this guy by the name of Michael Shun Lee via coffee meets bagel. He liked my profile first, so I just liked back to see how things goes. He introduced himself as a supervisor at a R&D institutes and also a business entrepreneur. His profile location shows him in Singapore but during the chat, he said he is a Korean but raised in Morphet Northumberland in UK and he is based there. He said that he has been living in UK for 20+ year but his English is kind of weird.

We started with in-app Chat, then moved to WhatsApp, chatted almost daily asking each other on our well-being. About 1 week after we chat, he confessed to me and said had bought me gifts. I felt weird but end up still giving him my address. I have no idea what he bought because he said it was a surprised for me. He showed me a picture of the posted parcel. Also told me that he left some money inside to pay for the delivery fee and clearance fee.

So, the courier service contacted me to verify the delivery details and alert me to pay a clearance fee of SGD1,000. Later, they informed me that they found money inside in the parcel, USD 11,500. And out of unknown regulation, they need to exchange that money to SGD and wanted to charge me a currency exchange fee of 1.3K. I went to the bank, wanting to remit the money. Luckily, the banker stops me telling me the remittance should NOT be going into a personal account.

I informed him and the courier service that I cannot remit the money. Both sides start to get angry with me for being ungrateful! I was totally speechless. I was kind of angry and stop responding. He then tries to act like I break his hearts and stuff. I got a little soft-hearted so tried to add that account given by the courier service as Payee online. This time round, the bank app rejected the swift code they provided. I informed the courier service. No reply. I told him. He asked me to use Western Union. I said it was not convenient to me. Instead, I ask him to remit the money on my behalf. He said no because he had already left the money inside the parcel. From then, I stopped replying him and blocked both contacts.

I have this feeling that both him and the courier service are partners in crime. He actually sided the courier service when I told him about the bad attitude they were giving me. Btw, he said that he engaged WORLDWIDE COURIER SERVICE but was not able to provide me a tracking number when I ask for it.

Really thankful to the banker and the app. I hope my story will create awareness for others.