A man in Singapore only discovered he was scammed after finding that he had 38 cents left in his savings account.
The 23-year-old man followed the requests of the scammer who posed as a Singapore police officer. The man had no any clue of the scammers’ modus operandi as he was not updated with news and the multiple warnings by Singapore authorities against such scams.
The man’s aunt shared his experience with Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News in hopes of creating more awareness among the public.
She said that the incident happened in January this year and admitted that her nephew would only go to work and return home to play mobile games, thus lacking awareness of ongoing scams.
The phone scammer contacted the victim through WhatsApp, with the “+92” country code, indicating the call was coming from Pakistan.
The man answered the call and saw the scammer dressed in what looked like a police uniform.
“I didn’t think about it too much. I thought that since the other party was a police officer, I followed his requests and gave him my NRIC number and one-time password (OTP),” said the victim, noting the whole call lasted only five minutes.
It was after a while that the man sensed something was amiss, so he checked his bank account.
More than S$4,000 was taken from his savings, leaving him with only 38 cents.
Singapore authorities have warned the public to refrain from answering calls from unknown numbers, especially those with foreign country codes.
On May 27, the Singapore Police Force said in a news release that a total of 199 men and 96 women aged between 16 and 80 were currently assisting in investigations for their suspected involvement in scams as scammers or money mules.
The suspects are believed to be involved in more than 746 cases of scams, comprising mainly business email impersonation scams, Government Officials impersonation scams, e-commerce scams, internet love scams, investment scams, job scams, loan scams, and rental scams where victims lost more than S$5.5 million.
“The Police take a serious stance against any person who may be involved in scams, and perpetrators will be dealt with in accordance with the law. To avoid being an accomplice to crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use your bank account or mobile lines as you will be held accountable if these are linked to crimes,” said SPF.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.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./TISG