On April 1, the Hougang police in Singapore posted a video warning people about romance scams.
Officer Benjamin Cheah, 35, a team leader in the Ground Response Force, appears holding a cup. But the cup is actually being held by someone else’s hand, off camera. Then he speaks, although his voice was prerecorded and he was only moving his lips. And in the end, it turns out that the person you’d been watching from the start was his reflection in a mirror. Three deceptions in a row to make the same point: what you see online may not be who it seems.
The lesson was clear. The reaction, not so much. Social media was flooded with comments about how handsome the officer was, and several people admitted they overlooked the red flags because they couldn’t stop staring at him.
One user joked that many women would go to the police station to report the loss of something very valuable: their hearts.
He wanted to teach people to be wary and, without meaning to, proved his point: do you also get swept away by a handsome face? 😅