*How a retiree lost $200K to scammers who posed as cops*

*How a retiree lost $200K to scammers who posed as cops* 

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/invest/how-a-retiree-lost-200k-to-scammers-who-posed-as-cops

2024-12-29

Tan Ooi Boon 

Invest Editor 

The Straits Times 

ooiboon@sph.com.sg

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A retiree, seemingly well up on the ways of the world, still ended up losing $200,000 to scammers who posed as foreign cops and maliciously preyed on her illogical fear of being convicted of a “crime” overseas.

Illogical might be too kind a word: The 70-year-old might not even have visited that country then, but she was so fearful of getting a criminal conviction for misusing her credit card there that she transferred the $200,000 to the “police” for safe-keeping, though no government would offer such a service.

As scams go, it was one of the more brazen and improbable, but it also shows that if a smart person can still fall for such a ridiculous ploy, efforts to educate the public on scams continue to fall on many deaf ears.

Around 46,000 scam cases were reported in Singapore in 2023 and there is no sign that the situation has improved, given there was already a record high of 26,587 incidents reported in the first half of 2024.

A plausible reason why such preventable crimes still can snare so many victims is that many people have largely stopped reading the news and important government broadcasts, because they prefer to spend their time looking at entertainment-based content on social media.

How else can one explain why even seemingly educated people continue to fall for the same old tricks that various authorities have warned us about hundreds, possibly thousands, of times?

For instance, the widely reported investigation scams often bear the tell-tale sign of “foreign officials” calling victims in Singapore directly, though in reality, such calls would not happen because overseas agencies have no power to investigate people here.

Moreover, the Singapore police have repeatedly said the business of policing would never be conducted over the phone or on social media platforms. So the police will never call you to verify personal or banking details, let alone ask you to transfer money.

Here are two cases highlighted in the 2024 annual report from the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (Fidrec) to remind everyone that prevention is still the best defence against scams.

$200,000 lost to fake police

The first concerns our retiree. A fraudster posing as a Beijing police officer called the woman, who lived alone, out of the blue to tell her that her credit card had been used fraudulently in China. The crook even threatened to arrest her if she did not cooperate.

Fearful of the arrest, the woman pleaded with the fraudster and asked how she could prove her innocence. He told her that the call would be transferred to “the Singapore Police Force to guide her”. She was also warned to keep the conversation secret as her “life would be in danger if the fraudsters in the scam ring found out”.

Common sense suggests you would likely raise the alarm when there is an opportunity to be in touch with a policeman, but the retiree did not ask for help even when her call was transferred to another scammer posing as a Singapore police officer.

Instead, she just followed the second crook’s instruction to transfer her money to a “safety account” that had been set up with one of her banks. The crook then sent her a digital copy of a letter that had the bank’s letterhead, account number and her name as the account holder.

The woman then made several transfers totalling $200,000 from her account to that “safety account”. Yet she never once asked why she had to do it or how that account would belong to her when she did not even sign for it. She also never asked her bank about the supposed misuse of her card.

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The awful reality slowly began to dawn on her after calls to the “police” a week later to ask about her money went unanswered. She then confided in her daughter, who had read about such cases in the newspapers and immediately told her she might have been scammed.

The retiree then appealed to her bank for help, and when she was not successful, she filed a claim at Fidrec.

During the mediation, she admitted that she had acted under pressure from the scammers and made the online transfers because she thought the funds were going into an account owned by her. But the bank explained that she had made the transfers voluntarily and there was no lapse in its processes.

Moreover, the bank had sent warning notifications asking her whether she understood the nature of the transfers, but she still proceeded. Nevertheless, the bank sympathised with the woman and made a 10 per cent goodwill payment of $20,000 for her loss.

$30,000 lost to fake travel promotion

Many of us now know that it is extremely hazardous to download any “payment app” to pay for any deal on social media, because this is a well-known ploy hackers use to hijack our phones.

The many news reports on scams linked to advertisements for enticing deals on social media should serve as cautionary tales to remind everyone not to deal with any unknown vendors.

But such warnings left no impression on one victim – let’s call her Jenny – as she clicked on an ad on social media that offered discounts on travel packages.

The crook told her to download an app to pay a nominal deposit of $5 to be eligible for the discounts. Jenny did as she was told and logged in to her own digital bank to make the deposit.

Unknown to her, she had downloaded malware to her mobile device that captured her banking information, including login passwords stored on the device. The scammer used the information to log into her bank account and start swiping her money.

Fortunately, the suspicious transactions were flagged by the bank’s security protocol, which immediately suspended the account. Even so, two transfers involving undisclosed sums had already gone through.

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A bank employee called Jenny to alert her of the account suspension, which made her realise that she may have downloaded malware to her phone.

She told the bank employee that she would replace her phone just to be safe, and she was advised to uninstall all non-app store apps before transferring her data to a new phone.

Jenny replaced her mobile phone but did not follow the bank’s advice and ended up downloading the malware to her new phone as well. As a result, more fraudulent transactions occurred, leading to a total loss of $30,000.

She said during a Fidrec mediation that she did not understand the advice to uninstall the suspicious apps as she thought changing her phone would solve the problem. She noted that the bank did help to block the suspicious activity and warn her.

As a goodwill gesture, the bank gave her $6,000 to help lessen the pain of losing her savings.

What you should do

While the police and banks are doing their utmost to protect you from scammers, you also need to do your part by keeping updated on important news relating to the ever-evolving nature of financial crimes.

We can avoid being scammed only if we practise basic preventive measures such as not responding to calls and messages from unknown parties or downloading apps from dubious sources.

You can boost your defences by downloading the ScamShield app that blocks calls and messages associated with known scam cases and apply the Money Lock feature in banking apps so that a certain portion of your savings cannot be withdrawn via online transfers.

What this means is that when it comes to safeguarding your money, you remain the best defence against those who are trying to steal it.

Tan Ooi Boon is the Invest Editor of The Straits Times

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