Fitness instructor Cheryl Chin was unwinding after a long workday when her phone buzzed with urgent messages from a good friend.
The exchange on messaging application Telegram started with a simple greeting and quickly moved to a request for help. “She sent me a link and asked me to verify (its content).”
Without thinking, the 31-year-old clicked on the link. It led her to a webpage asking her to “verify” a photo of the “friend” posing in front of a restaurant menu.
“Strange,” Ms Chin thought. As she reread the messages, her suspicion grew. “It didn’t sound like the way (my friend) usually texts.”
Ms Chin decided to reach out to her friend via another messaging platform, WhatsApp. “At this point, I was certain that her Telegram account was hacked,” she explains.
Her instincts proved right.
Upon checking, the friend realised she had been logged out of her Telegram account and was no longer able to access it.
Alarmed, Ms Chin’s friend acted swiftly; she changed her phone number the next day and cancelled the compromised line to prevent further misuse.
It is one instance of how scammers are increasingly using messaging apps to contact victims.