In March 2020, a 22-year-old woman and a 68-year-old man received calls from scammers claiming to be bank staff and were told that unauthorised transactions had been made with their credit cards and bank accounts. Their calls were subsequently transferred to scammers claiming to be officers from the Chinese authorities who alleged that they were being investigated for transnational crimes. Both of them were persuaded by the scammers to provide their bank details and One-Time Password (OTP).
Working closely with banks and through investigations after being alerted to unusual transaction behaviour in their bank accounts, the Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) froze the bank account belonging to the woman to prevent money from being transferred out to overseas accounts. ASC officers concurrently engaged the man and the woman on several instances, but both of them remained adamant that they were not victims of scam. By instruction of the scammers, the woman also lodged a police report to request the release of her bank account. Through persistent engagement by ASC officers, both the man and woman eventually came to realise that they were victims of a China Officials Impersonation Scam.
The man and woman had suffered total losses amounting to more than S$74,000. The quick action of bank staff and ASC officers prevented further losses amounting to S$50,000 by the man. The Police advise members of the public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls to transfer money to others in order to avoid criminal investigations:
· Ignore such calls and the caller’s instructions. No government agency will demand payment through an undocumented medium like a telephone call or other social messaging platforms (WeChat or Facebook), or ask you for personal banking information such as your internet banking passwords.
· Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on a 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. Do not make any funds transfer at the behest of such callers.
· Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. Do not be pressured by the caller to act impulsively.
· To seek scam-related advice, you may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.
If you wish to provide any information related to scams, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
Join the ‘Let’s Fight Scams’ campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends. Together, we can help stop scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next scam victim.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
29 April 2020 @ 3:00 PM