A Remittance Company cum Moneychanger, Samlit Moneychanger Pte Ltd has foiled another scam attempt involving $50,000. This is the second time that the company has successfully detected a scam within the last two days.
On 8 July 2016 at about 12.30pm, the Police were alerted to a suspected case of cheating by Mr Malik Sameer, a staff from Samlit Moneychanger Pte Ltd. Upon the receipt of the report, officers from Central Division and Commercial Affairs Department responded to the case and ascertained that a 69-year-old victim had been scammed into remitting $50,000 to an overseas account.
Investigations revealed that on 4 July 2016, the victim had received a phone call claiming that she had a parcel containing illegal items sent under her name via DHL to Shanghai. The call was then transferred to someone claiming to be a Custom officer, who threatened the victim with imprisonment if she did not comply with his instructions. The caller then directed the victim to call him at specific timings, i.e. 9.00am, 12.00pm, 5.00pm and 8.00pm daily. On 8 July 2016, the victim was told to remit $50,000 to a specific China account if she wanted the authority to expedite the investigations.
At the remittance company, one of the staff, Ms Novianti Goh who was attending to the victim, suspected something amiss when the victim could not provide reasonable answers to general queries and kept changing her versions. The victim was also observed to be speaking to someone on her phone throughout the whole process and appeared to be acting under instructions, adding further to her suspicions. As such, Mr Malik Sameer called the Police quickly while Ms Novianti Goh continued to probe further.
Through the swift responses of officers from Central Division and Commercial Affairs Department, they spoke to the victim who was still at the Remittance Company. Further investigative probing helped in halting the transaction, leading to the full recovery of $50,000 belonging to the victim.
This is the third scam case which the Police and two Remittance Companies have jointly foiled within the last two weeks, involving a total amount of $255,000. The Police would like to commend Ms Novianti Goh and Mr Malik Sameer for their civic-mindedness and timely interventions that helped protect another victim. The Police also hope that these success stories can spur stronger Police-Community Partnership to prevent more victims from falling prey to scammers.
The Police would like to advise members of public to take precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
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Ignore the calls. Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore. If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
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Ignore instruction to remit or transfer money. No government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party's bank account.
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Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals
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Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotion and err in your judgment.
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If you have information related to such crime or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or dial 999 for urgent Police assistance.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
10 July 2016 @ 10:30 PM