Singapore — A concerned individual appealed for assistance online after her mum fell victim to a “DBS Bicentennial Commemorative Note” phishing scam, resulting in her life savings “gone within seconds.”
Complaint Singapore Facebook page member Nayer Soh asked for advice from others on Sunday (Jan 23) as they were allegedly left in the dark regarding another phishing scam incident.
She noted that her mother was scammed by an SMS posing as DBS bank, wherein the receiver was “eligible to receive the Singapore Bicentennial Commemorative Note of S$20 for free.”
The SMS included a URL, where, once clicked, enables scammers to retrieve the victim’s banking information and passwords.
“Her entire life savings is gone within seconds, we called the bank and made police report immediately, but till today DBS has given no update (sic),” wrote Ms Soh.
“Was only notified by the police officer today of the outcome after I initiated the call,” she added.
Ms Soh noted that the incident “fractured” her family’s relationship, as it was a “life-changing amount of money.”
Netizens responding to her post said it was challenging to retrieve money lost through phishing scams.
“Have to call in and chase DBS for an update. Fraud cases usually take up anywhere between 3-6 months of investigation. If lucky, you might just be able to get back the funds,” said a netizen.
“Normally, those scams are overseas scams very hard to catch. Don’t expect bank to return you the money coz once gone is gone, OCBC return money out of goodwill coz too many people kena. In conclusion, don’t expect SPF able to catch the scammer and DBS able return you any money,” another Facebook user added.
This isn’t the first time that life savings were swiped through phishing scams. Ho Ching, a Director of Temasek Trust, shared a story on Jan 15 of a family who fell victim to such scams.
One John Tan wrote that it all started when his wife received “a strange message from OCBC, telling her someone was trying to access her account.”
From there, they lost everything through five overseas transactions.”
After calling OCBC, it was confirmed that the money was gone, and although the bank would try retrieving their savings, the chances were slim.
There has been a sharp rise in phishing scams, with OCBC detecting and initiating a takedown of 45 phishing websites in December last year.
In the last two weeks of December, 469 OCBC clients fell victim to the phishing scam.
Banks like DBS and OCBC advise the public not to click any SMSes with links as they would never ask for account details or one-time passwords over the phone, email or SMS. /TISG