A woman claims to have gone after the person who scammed her out of £80 ($100) on Snapchat, confronting him in front of his mother.
Chloe Kroll, 24, says she was swindled back in 2020, by a man she'd been talking to on Snapchat for a few weeks. One day, completely out of the blue, he asked her for cash, claiming he'd be able to flip the money if she sent him over £800 ($1,000).
Although she did find the request somewhat "sketchy" at the time, Chloe decided to send him over £80 to start with, warning him that she would come and find him if he messed her around.
Unfortunately, her hesitations turned out to be completely justified, and the man blocked her on social media platforms mere seconds after getting his hands on her money.
Sticking to her promise, Chloe began her "FBI search" for the scammer, scouring the internet for leads.
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Chloe, who has since shared her gripping story via TikTok, said: "By 10.30pm, my FBI search began. He blocked me on literally every social media website immediately so it was very hard to find him on socials.
"I was searching till midnight that I came across people that knew him and, of course, they backed him up and told me to f*** off."
The realtor and property manager continued with her investigation the following morning, and "thanks to Google " finally came across a person who knew his surname.
From thereon, she was able to track down his whole family, even getting her hands on addresses and a phone number.
After reaching out through Facebook, one of his relatives actually apologised to Chloe and even helped her locate him.
The unnamed relative, whose relation to the man is unclear, told Chloe that he'd been stealing "from everyone, including family", and that she'd had plenty of messages already about his dodgy behaviour.
After Chloe revealed her plan to show up and get her money back, the relative told her "exactly where he would be and when", leading Chloe straight to his front door.
Chloe, from Lincoln, Nebraska, US, recalled: "His mother answered the door, I explained the situation and I apologised for bringing her into this. She said 'Oh no no', then screamed her son's name and there he came running down the stairs.
"He had no clue who I was. The first thing I said to him was 'I warned you that I would show up to your house and get my money backed if you scammed me.' He was immediately angry and said 'Dude you can't just show up to my house like this.'
"His mother and grandmother were literally in total shock that I showed up, they were yelling at him in a different language at the same time I was yelling at him.
"He didn't have the money on him at the time, but I made it clear I wanted it back in the next three hours sent over cash-app and that is exactly what he did."
The following day, Chloe received an apology message from the scammer and she has since gone on to relay her tale in an engaging TikTok video.
The clip has clocked up more than 278,000 views and nearly 30,000 likes, with many people left impressed by Chloe's keen detective skills.
Some have even requested her sleuthing services, with one person commenting: "Can you help me? I got scammed of £2,400 ($3000) in a rental scam I want to find the guy."
Others have shared their own experiences, with another writing: "A guy scammed me, I went to his parents' house and they said it wasn't a surprise and gave me the church he was volunteering at so I could go collect."
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