I have encountered many scam attempts over the past few years. I’ve received calls from people pretending to be my friend and asking me to guess their name. I’ve been asked to pay insurance premiums for policies I never bought. I’ve also received numerous WhatsApp messages offering “job opportunities” as well as failed package delivery. All of these were obvious scams to me. Until recently. This time, it was the most convincing scam attempt I’ve experienced. I received a missed call, followed by a WhatsApp message claiming to be from the Singapore Police Force.

At first, I was skeptical. However, I had previously interacted with the police due to my cryptocurrency peer-to-peer trading activities (this is a story for another day). Because of that legitimate encounter, I gave it the benefit of doubt that the WhatsApp message might be related and real.

So I replied to clarify what was it about.

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