SINGAPORE – A 56-year-old man who lost $250,000 to a conman posing as a bank worker was able to recover all the money with the help of Standard Chartered Bank and the police’s Anti-Scam Centre.
The police in a statement on June 14 said the man was told by the conman in a phone call that there was a suspicious transaction on his credit card.
The call was then transferred to another person pretending to be a police officer, who claimed that the man was a victim of an identity fraud and that the money in his bank accounts had been frozen.
The statement said: “To assist in the purported investigation, the man was then instructed to open a new Standard Chartered bank account online and to transfer a total of $250,000 from accounts held with other banks into the newly created account.”
The man also complied with the scammer’s instructions to provide the new account’s login details and password to assist with the fake investigation into the account by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The man realised he might have fallen victim to a scam only after telling his family about the incident.
A police report was subsequently lodged, the statement said.
“Officers from the Anti-Scam Centre were alerted to this case and Standard Chartered’s anti-fraud team immediately blocked online banking access and suspended the bank account, preventing any fund movement,” said the police, adding that the full sum was recovered on June 6.
The police said government officials, especially police officers, will never make requests over the phone or through text asking individuals to do any of the following: make bank transfers; provide personal banking, Singpass or Central Provident Fund-related information; click on links that lead to bank websites; and install third-party applications or software on their digital devices.