Beware of social media accounts pretending to be Cathryn Li (李元玲). The 32-year-old Malaysian took to her Instagram Stories to post a friendly warning to her 2 million IG followers over the weekend.
Scam cases are nothing new, but more and more scammers have been using the identities of public figures and celebrities to extract money from friends and followers on social media.
In her posts, Cathryn wrote:
“I recently received a message saying that someone is impersonating me. The person had opened an account to commit fraud. My personal social media accounts have a blue tick verification. Any other accounts are fake. If any of you have been cheated, please report it to the police immediately.
I also want to urge everyone not to simply transfer money to a stranger online whom you haven’t met. It’s better to pass the money in person. Because once your money is gone, it’s quite difficult to get it back. Another tactic is to check the account’s circle of friends. If there aren’t mutual friends between the both of you, it could be a scam.”
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If it’s someone you know personally, you could also consider transferring cash through e-wallets, but always verify beforehand.
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