74-year-old man tries to buy Peking duck online, ends up losing S$70,000 of life savings

SINGAPORE: Another day, another story of an older Singaporean losing his or her savings to a scammer after being tricked into downloading an app that contained malware. This time, the victim was a 74-year-old man who had only wanted to buy Peking duck online but ended up losing S$70,000 of his life savings.

The man, identified as Mr Loh, had seen an offer on Facebook on Aug 26 for 1.5 kilos of Peking duck at S$23.80, plus a shipping fee of S$5. The dealer’s name was Xiao Xiao Ya Zi, reported the Chinese-language Shin Min Daily News.

He wanted the dish for a family dinner that day and thought that his grandson would like to have some. After clicking on the ad, Mr Loh received voice messages on WhatsApp from the vendor, telling him to download and install an app on his phone called Grab & Go. According to the app, the order would proceed once he deposited S$5 via PayNow.

At first, Mr Loh, who used to be an importer, was aware that the offer could be a fraudulent one and actually asked the supposed sales agent from Xiao Xiao Ya Zi if the deal was a scam. However, he was convinced by the person he spoke to to make the deposit through PayNow. The scammer told Mr Loh that “no one would be cheated of $5,” The Straits Times reported.

Shortly after he made the payment, however, his phone showed a black screen and took half an hour to reboot. Panicking, Mr Loh then tried to reach the scammer again, but was reassured by him that this was a normal occurrence. However, this was overheard by his wife, who was so alarmed that she told her daughter what was going on. The daughter, in turn, called her brother to ask DBS to block Mr Loh’s account.

But by then the scammer increased the transaction limit on Mr Loh’s account and emptied it of S$58,800, and also used the DBS credit card of Mr Loh to get a credit advance of around S$11,000.

Mr Loh expressed frustration with himself to ST, saying “I couldn’t believe the news. I thought: Why am I so stupid? I was so angry at myself for being cheated of my life savings. My family is frustrated, and I ended up quarrelling with my wife.”

His children, who had warned him of such scams a number of times in the past, were greatly dismayed that their father had been tricked in this way, as they believed they had done enough to minimize the risks that he would be scammed. Their father has now removed Facebook and banking apps from his phone.

/TISG

Woman loses S$100K+ savings after downloading durian tour app