Scammer aborts mission as trolling Line user offers to send cash intended for mother’s operation

Last month, we brought you news of a scam wherein users of Line, a free messaging application popular in Japan and South Korea, were being tricked into buying prepaid cards on behalf of friends whose accounts had been hacked. Thankfully, Japan’s Line users were just as wily, and set to trolling the hackers in return, sending goading messages, irritating emoticons and even nude pictures, but the scamming still continues, with the app’s makers struggling to stamp it out.

But as these hackers descend to new levels of douchery, legitimate Line users are levelling up their troll powers, like this Twitter user who managed to get the scammers to abort by feeding them a tale of woe.

When anonymous messages arrive asking for money or urgent assistance, the vast majority of people will immediately delete them and block the user. When cries for help seemingly come from someone you know and have in your address book, however, it can be a lot different.

A number of Line users have reported receiving messages from legitimate contacts asking them to purchase pre-paid WebMoney cards and send the redemption number over as soon as possible, claiming to be in some kind of a jam. As it turns out, though, while these scammers are clearly good-for-nothing low-lives who ought to get a real job instead of constantly trying to con the rest of us, not all of them feel comfortable taking money intended for, say, an elderly woman’s operation.

On July 30, Twitter user @Yashi09 shared screenshots of his exchange with one of these WebMoney scammers, telling how they backed off as soon as it became clear where the money they were asking for would come from.

As per usual, the conversation began with a plea for help, in the form of pre-paid money cards.

“Please buy four 10,000-point cards,” wrote the scammer, whose username and photo (which most likely belong to a legitimate user) are blacked out in these screenshots.

Yashi, who had already received messages of this nature and knew exactly what was going on, feigned reluctance but then agreed to head out and buy the cards. “Could you buy them right away?” the scammer then asks, to which Yashi cunningly replies: “I just happen to have 40,000 [yen], but it was supposed to be for my mother’s operation… But we’re close friends. OK, I’ll spend the money on you instead.”

It was then that the scammer seemed to have a sudden change of heart.

“You don’t need to go that far,” they write.

“You’re more important than my mother,” Yashi trolls in return, clearly enjoying the fact that he has the scammer on the ropes. “No, no, you can’t do that,” the hacker responds. “I’ll ask someone else. It’s fine, really.”

But Yashi isn’t about to stop now. “I’m heading to the convenience store now. I’ll buy them,” he writes, driving the emotionally loaded stake in.

Clearly feeling guilty, the scammer then comes clean, admitting that “this was a lie” and asking Yashi not to buy the cards they initially asked for.

“It’s alright,” Yashi responds. “My mother’s fine. Sorry, that was a lie hehehehe.”

The scammer, clearly butt-hurt, retorts by calling him a “brute” and exits the chat.

“I felt bad so told them my mother was fine,” tweeted Yashi afterwards. “Then [the scammer] called me a brute.”

Source: Twitter via Hamster Sokuho

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