A Tongan who was befriended by an overseas scammer online, reported the matter to Tonga Police after the scammer directed the victim to send money. Tonga Police today urged the public to be more cautious when interacting online.
Police stated that the Tongan victim was befriended by the scammer, by adding the victim as a friend on Facebook/Meta, and led the victim to believe they were in a romantic relationship.
In this case, ‘Anthony Heich’ is the Facebook account that was used by the scammer.
After a month and two-weeks of online chats, the offender/scammer then directed the victim to use WhatsApp for their online communication.
WhatsApp is a free messaging application for making audio and video calls, taking, and sending pictures. To use it, one must register using their mobile number.
“The WhatsApp number used by the scammer, +447488871744, appears to be a United Kingdom number.
“While believing that they were now a couple, the scammer promised the victim a fortune, convincing that he would visit and buy themselves a house and a car in celebrating his birthday.
“The next day after receiving these affectionate messages, another WhatsApp number, +61433803023 called the victim, directing to send $2000 to pay for a package that arrived at the Fua’amotu Airport,” said the police.
The victim, being led on to this intended malicious fraud, then proceeded to make loans but fortunately, the victim was alerted in time to the fact that this was a fraud.
The…
