PSA - Gift Exchange Scammer

Hi everyone~ It's that time of the year again! It's December so that means we are going into the 🎄holiday season🎄! Now, everyone tend to get into the holiday spirit and tries to give a bit more than usual such that everyone can have a good holiday. Unfortunately, there is always some people out there who is just looking to take advantage of people's generosity. 😥

If you read my blog before, I have mentioned of this person who have taken advantage of me a couple years ago by offering to do a gift exchange. I sent over my package and of course never received the package she supposedly sent over. I tried to give her the benefit of doubt but seeing how two years later, I still haven't received it. I am pretty sure she's scammed me.

Here are what my communications with her.

 

Now, the reason why I am writing up this post today is because well.. it appears this person is still at it. 😡😤 I actually been contacted by two different person this year regarding this person, whom I am going to call Person X👿.

The first, whom I will go with her initials, A.D, contacted me in April this year. She was very upset because she had sent over a gift exchange that is worth of hundreds of dollars and subsequently found my post from last year. She informed me of how much they have communicated, even via phone calls, to ensure the other person truly exist. A.D. even obtained supposedly personal photos of this person, and a tracking number for the package. Unfortunately, after she discovered my post, Person X stopped correspondence and deleted her Instagram account. A.D. was very upset but there really was nothing the both of us can do at this point. 😓😓 Below are the images of their communication, all of which are being posted with A.D's consent.

Fast forward to today, December 3rd. Imagine my surprise when I received a message from M.K, asking me if I have the name of the person mentioned in my post. She said she is doing a gift exchange with someone in India and found my post and is afraid she's been scammed too. So I provided her with both the names A.D. and I have received. M.K. confirmed the mailing address is the same but the names were different. This was not a big surprise considering how Person X has been changing their names with each person they scammed. M.K. offered to send me pictures of their communication, and here they are below, with M.K's consent.

This is the current account Person X is using. Ironic the caption says "believer of karma", as a true believer would know all these action are bringing in bad karma...😠

Did you catch it? Person X sent the same picture to both A.D. and M.K! When I first saw the picture from M.K., I was thinking oh, maybe it is a genuine package. But I thought I would go through the pictures A.D. sent me just in case. So imagine my surprise when I found the EXACT same image being sent to both. That right there confirmed everything, Person X is pulling the exact same gift exchange scam to various people on Instagram using different accounts.  So now I don't feel so bad about posting all that I have on this person.

Update: Wow.. I am surprised at Person X's audacity. Since I posted on Instagram, I gotten response from peeps from the r/AsianBeauty community that they have been approached. The most recent is today, a day after I posted this.. Yikes.. 😤😤😱

 She has since made her account private, so I am assuming she is aware this account has been exposed. Sadly, there is a high likelihood that she will just make a new account to scam more people.. 😤😤

Update #2: 
It hit me last night that image of the address will not be searchable via Google, so I am updating the post with a text version of the address.

C-144 Ashok Vihar

Phase-1 Ground Floor

Delhi-110052

India

Looks like the common name Person X uses includes Kaur and Preet. 

A small victory from this is that M.K. managed to find my post before she bought all of the gifts and mailed it out! Both A.D. and I are so happy about that! 😄😄 I hope this post will help prevent more people from falling for Person X's schtick and spend their hard earned money on a scammer!

P.S. I am not saying every gift exchange offer coming out of India is bad. But just be cautious when you get unsolicited exchange offers on Instagram. It's always fun to do a gift exchange with a stranger and it could lead to wonderful surprises. But do it through somewhere there is a third party somewhat moderating, like Reddit gift exchange. 😊 There are rules in those gift exchanges to prevent the parties involved from being scammed.