Former Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Yee Jenn Jong is drawing widespread praise online after he managed to stop a fake car accident scam from taking place in Bedok.
Mr Yee is a founding member of The Red Collective (TRC) – a non-profit that is dedicated to helping people facing food insecurities in Singapore by redistributes donated food to beneficiaries from low-income communities, migrant workers, nursing homes, soup kitchens and more.
He was in Bedok on Sunday (28 May) driving TRC’s 15-foot container truck, delivering donated vegetables and fruits to beneficiaries in the area, when the incident took place.
Mr Yee said that when he arrived at the drop off point, the residents apparently warned him to be careful of two men lurking around directly across where he had parked the truck. The residents told him that one of the men would purposely get himself pretend to be knocked by cars and then the pair would confront drivers for medical fees.
During this time, Mr Yee witnessed the man carrying the scam out right in front of his eyes. He recounted:
“While residents were still telling me this, I noticed a car reversing to back out of the corner next to my truck. I saw the man go towards the car, made a bang on the boot of the car with his hand and then acrobatically fell down.
“The lady driver came out panicking, asking the man if he was injured. I told her to ignore them and just drive away as they are known by residents to fake being hit. Told her I witnessed the incident. A little hesitant initially, she took my advice and drove off.”
Speaking perfect English, the scammer confronted Mr Yee and asked why he told the woman to move off. When the WP politician responded that he saw the other man fake the accident, the scammer “muttered some curses on me and my family” and walked off with his companion.
Sharing that the man was “obviously not injured,” Mr Yee said that he has reported the incident to the police and that investigations are ongoing. He pointed out that the scammer could have easily swindled a few hundred bucks off the hapless driver and said that he was surprised to see such things happening in Singapore:
“Always thought such things happen overseas. Didn’t expect to see it right before my eyes. Such audacity of the guy to even come to me demanding to know why I told the driver to go away. Thankfully, I was not the only witness and they didn’t dare do anything to me as there were several of us. Beware!”
Netizens responding to Mr Yee’s post on online forums have praised him for acting decisively, helping the driver who was almost scammed and for standing up to the men even when he was confronted.
Singapore is not immune to fake car accident scams, or crash-for-cash scams, and drivers who encounter or suspect such scams are advised to report it to the authorities promptly.