Scammer pretends to be man’s friend to get S$4.8K transferred to POSB account

SINGAPORE: A man took to social media to share a firsthand account of his encounter with a scammer who pretended to be his friend. The scammer attempted to get S$4,800 from him.

Mr Yoshimura wrote on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Friday (Dec 29) that he received a call from this number, 80739347, that was unknown to him. The voice on the other end sounded like one of his friends, Mr Sim, who said he had recently changed his number and asked via text messages how to change his contact number in the POSB app for his PayNow.

“Mr Sim” sent him a screenshot of his difficulties, and Mr Yoshimura assisted him through WhatsApp messages.

At around noon, he called Mr Yoshimura to say that his POSB app had been locked because he could not answer the security questions. Still, he needed help transferring funds to someone else named Jason and could only unlock his account after 3 pm that day.

He then asked Mr Yoshimura to transfer $4,800 to someone called “Jason” with mobile number 93433014, promising to return the money that afternoon.

Mr Yoshimura said no, claiming he had insufficient funds in his account. But the scammer continued to ask for money, lowering the amount to S$1,000 because another friend had allegedly loaned him S$3,800.

Mr Yoshimura did not do so, although, seemingly aware that it was a scam, he pretended that he did.

“I checked with my friend, the real Mr. Sim, he said that number does not belong to him. He has never request such transfer,” he wrote, adding, “If you are here or happen to know who they are, please kindly inform them that I have already lodged a police report against them. Thank you.”

In April this year, the Singapore Police Force warned against this type of scam called the “Fake Friend Call Scam.” They wrote that it had been a recent trend among scammers, where they pretended to be their victim’s friend and ask for financial assistance.

The police said there had been at least 1,300 victims of this scam since the beginning of 2023, with total losses of at least $4.33 million. /TISG

Read also: Singaporean retiree loses S$1M+ scammed by “Facebook friend”