On 17th of June 6.48pm, I received a Facebook message from someone named Amber Lau Shin Yi expressing her interest in buying my second hand clothes. I found it rather odd coming from a stranger as we weren't even friends on Facebook. But then again, she could have been my blog reader or Facebook follower as most contents on my profile are on public setting.
I have sold some of my clothes to followers before, so I thought this could just be another genuine transaction?
I politely replied and asked if there was any dress in particular that caught her attention. I thought there must be a reason why she chose to buy my clothes in the first place. Why me? Why not other girls? And which dresses does she want from me? Normally the buyers would state which specific outfit or what kind of design they are seeking for.
Her reason of buying my clothes: she is SAVING UP TO BUY A HOUSE!
Wow, when you want to save up and buy a house, buying someone else's old clothes sound like a brilliant idea!
Without wanting to judge her logic or to doubt her intention, I decided to screenshot a few of my Instagram photos and sent to her. These photos are publicly accessible and free to be viewed by anyone, hence if this person turns out to be a fraud, I have nothing to lose.
I sent her 4 photos, out of which she claimed to be interested in 2. That's 50% success rate, I thought. Not too bad for the first batch. Feeling motivated, I decided to screenshot more. Maybe this could be a new effective way of reducing my credit card debt!
And so I sent like 10 more photos.
Amber sounded pleased. Because all my clothes are so pretty ^^
Then comes the deal breaker part.
She requested to buy my bras!
What the hell?
Okay maybe at this point of time you still think it was a genuine request and that she was indeed buying my bra in order to save up to buy a house wtf. But let me analyze it from my point of view on why i started to feel suspicious.
1. She is not my Facebook friend.
And she did not attempt to add me although she claimed to be interested in my clothes. When you want to buy someone else's clothes you tend to want to understand that person more. (Like what if I have skin disease or something? Or maybe I have the habit of wearing my clothes repeatedly without washing them?)
2. She did not mention how she came across my profile.
Blog? Instagram? Random Facebook followers? On usual circumstances people would mention.
And how long has she been observing me? What exactly it is about my clothes that attracted her attention? I did not see any justifiable reason that she was genuine from the things she had said thus far.
3. Our mutual friends are super random, without a common group.
And most of them are girls. Girls whom I assume are 'her' used-to-be-victims or new prey. For all I know she could be sending the same message to many other girls, hoping that at least a few would fall for it.
4. There is nothing much going on in her profile.
There are only photos of herself on her Facebook. I did see one or two photos of her with others but those were from several years ago. Besides, her timeline is flooded by spam posts. Give her the benefit of doubt for not having taken photos with others, maybe I just didn't see because we are not friends on Facebook. But who in the right mind would let their timeline be contaminated by tags from online sellers? Fakers who want their profile to seem real with more activities going on perhaps?
5. Who the fuck wants to wear someone else's bra?!
Ask any girl you know. It is disgusting! That girl might have BO or nipple discharge or something you never know! (Not that I have any -.-) Besides, girls don't share the same cup size idiot. Even if she thinks I am a definite A, the measurement might not be the same. No matter how poor and desperate a girl is, she would rather buy a pasar malam bra than buying someone else's used bra!
Despite the many reasons that has confirmed my suspicion, I played along with Miss 'Amber' my supposedly used-bra buyer.
I requested for an advance payment!
And I even offered my panties. Because why not the whole package? Teehee.
She refused to buy my panties though, thinking that it is unhygienic. Sigh :(
Anyway Amber said she doesn't mind transferring the advance payment so she asked for my number. I think she meant my account number? Lol.
She asked how much does it cost and she said she hopes that I am not pranking. This frauder couldn't have sounded more genuine wow I was almost convinced that she was an innocent girl saving up to buy a house!
And for a flick second I thought she would actually bank in some money to me lo sadly no, she changed her mind even before I sent her my account number!
She requested for a meet-up!
Creeeeeeeeeep.
The hell I want to meet up with a stranger? Suggesting to meet up at a cafe/campus so that I would feel less intimidated? Still not falling for it!
Who knows what psychotic pervert is the true owner of that Facebook profile? And if a girl ever falls victim to "her" scheme to meet up, what kinda tragedy awaits?
Anyway, to be fair to Miss Amber, prior to posting up her profile publicly, I did my market check with some of the mutual friends, none of whom actually knows her. One of them confirmed my suspicion that this is indeed a scammer and that she and her friends have been asked for their bra size before!
Beware girls, if Miss Amber or anyone suspicious as such randomly come up to you requesting to buy your clothes, do not fall into their trap! It's scary what goes on in these perverts' minds. And this profile has existed for so long! I certainly hope no girls have fallen prey throughout all these years :(
Meanwhile, you may spare a few seconds reporting "her" to Facebook as fake profile:
https://www.facebook.com/messages/amber.laushinyi
