In a ceremony held at Bedok Police Division today, a bank staff, Ms Ng Lay Kheng from OCBC was commended for her vigilance in preventing a victim from falling prey to an internet love scam. With her assistance, the Police managed to prevent a 55-year-old man from remitting $17,100 overseas.
On 30 August 2017 at about 1pm, the victim was at OCBC Tampines Branch. He wanted to remit $17,100 to an individual in Malaysia for the payment of an ‘Anti-Terrorism Certificate’, for the immigration clearance of parcel. Upon hearing this, Ms Ng immediately alerted the Police.
Officers from Bedok Police Division responded to the case, managed to intercept the remittance and successfully prevented the victim from suffering further losses.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim had met an unknown woman on a social networking site and eventually developed a romantic relationship with her. Thereafter, the victim was asked to remit money overseas on the pretext of various reasons such as payment for examination fees, parcel fees or immigration clearance fees. Prior to 30 August 2017, the victim had already remitted monies to Malaysia on a few occasions. Investigations are ongoing.
Commander of Bedok Police Division, Assistant Commissioner of Police Tan Tin Wee commended Ms Ng for her vigilance and timely intervention in preventing the victim from falling prey to the scam. He said, “It is indeed heartening to see the strong working partnership between the Police and the community. The vigilance displayed by Ms Ng is indeed commendable”.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All information will be kept strictly confidential.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
07 September 2017 @ 11:45 AM