What you're about to read is going to be the roller-coaster ride you never saw coming.

To provide some context: A scam is going around Facebook where users get messages from accounts impersonating people they know asking for their phone number.

This is essentially a gift card scam. Any legit phone number provided will be used to help the scammer redeem a gift card.

Of course, while normal people will quickly verify, block and report scam accounts, because we're Mothership.sg, we decided to delve further.

The ride begins

When my contact, whom I shall call A, posted on Facebook that her account got hacked, within a few minutes, I received a friend request from the account impersonating A.

So I added the impostor and waited.

Minutes later, I received a message.

As you can see,  I was already keen to take the scammer for a ride that he would never forget.

On the short pretense that I'd send a screenshot of the OTP that was sent to my number, I sent a few googled pictures of breasts in lingerie, as a tribute to the "bobs and vegana" memes that have been going around.

This probably isn't the best thing to do -- I suggest you just report anything scammy on Facebook straightaway, but in the spirit of trolling the scammer, I did it.

And because I was feeling extra festive, I sent this as well.

Plot twist

Holy bananas in pajamas.

The scammer caught onto my ploy, and sent a picture of a penis.

I'm pretty certain it was a googled pic, and I knew he was playing on the same game of chess as I was. So, I was unfazed despite the crude, lengthy display of male virility.

[related_story]

From here, we knew the game was up. He gave up and introduced himself.

I found out that he was called "Ufuk" and he claims to be from Turkey.

I had the suspicion that he might be trolling me (i.e. "you f**k"), but indeed it is a common Turkish name.

Ufuk went into sob story mode nearly immediately.

He explained that his tight circumstances forced him to scam others in this fashion.

He also calls himself a "con artist with a good conscience", which... I'm less inclined to believe, but perhaps the essence of it lost itself in translation.

Attempts to probe further into the operations behind the scam came up with very little results, except for the fact that Ufuk explained that Europeans were the first to be targeted.

They may earn up to S$50 a day, as well.

No family

Taking out my emotional trump card, I then asked about his family.

Ufuk said he lives alone and is single. Initially, I was confused when he said "my family has no traffic accidents", but then it was later clarified that his family supposedly died in a traffic accident.

Saying that he couldn't go to school was a little peculiar to me, when he could at least communicate in semi-proficient English.

But my guess is that he churned half of what he was typing through Google Translate.

But of course, our nice little chat had to eventually come to an end.

This was where it gets heavy. He told me it was nice to talk to me, and he told me to take care too.

It's poignant. This guy, from a cold, lonely corner of Turkey, had tried to scam me by impersonating a person I knew, and attempted to misuse that trust to get my number and redeem a gift card.

I tried to act aggressive and snarky with all those googled photos of bob and vagene and ready to unload on him. But at the end of the day, he was the one who told me to take care. And that it was nice talking to me.

We've tried reaching out to him to send us his address, so as to perhaps, in my little moment of kindness, send him a nice letter or gift.

He initially misunderstood it as me taking pity on him, protesting that he was not a beggar and didn't want any money.

When we clarified it was simply an avenue for us to send a postcard or a letter, however, he seemed willing to divulge the info.

Goodbye?

Sadly, he ultimately did not send his address, and subsequent responses were seemingly off tangent from what we spoke about in the scam account.

He asked for my name and age, despite the former being very obviously shown on my Facebook account.

Attempts to clarify his background as a scammer/ hacker didn't make him say any more.

Whatever it is, the scam account has since been reported.

I can only hope Ufuk chooses to go down a better path in life, regardless of whether his story has an ounce of truth or not.

In the meantime, one thing's for sure, Ufuk -- and many like him -- will become the newest star of me my aunts' cautionary WhatsApp tales.

Godspeed, Ufuk. I meant that unironically, too.

For more information on how to protect yourself and your loved ones from falling for such scams, you may check out the National Crime Prevention Council's website here.