They tried to scam me

Juliana Liu, Senior Editor, Inkstone

A few months ago, I was the target of one of these scams. I got a call claiming to be from DHL, telling me that I had a package. Then I was told the package was stuck at customs. The operator told me the package had been flagged by Shanghai police as implicated in some kind of investigation: would I like to speak to the authorities?

I agreed and was promptly – too promptly – put through to an officer who asked me seemingly reasonable questions: when had I last travelled to Shanghai? Was my ID lost at any point?

And the kicker – he said I had to travel from Hong Kong, where I live, to mainland China to settle the matter, as I was now also implicated in the investigation. If not, I’d be barred from leaving Hong Kong altogether.

There was even a muttered conversation with a police “colleague” on the other end of the line, to make the call seem all the more real.

Eventually, I hung up. These people were professionals. The entire operation was extremely well oiled. They knew exactly what they were doing.

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