SINGAPORE: A woman was scammed out of $15,000 by a caller claiming to be from DBS Bank, who told her that she had a pending Shopee payment. The woman, 63, ended up transferring money three times to “assist in investigations.”
Her granddaughter, Ms Gwenise Low, posted on the popular COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Thursday night (Apr 27) “to spread awareness on how real these kind of scams are, so many victims that don’t even know if they can get their money back even if a police report has been lodged.”
Ms Low wrote that the scam occurred on Wednesday (Apr 26) at 10:30 am, saying that her grandmother received a call from this number +6587434916 about the alleged pending Shopee payment.
She added, “Mind you she’s 63, she does not know how to use Shopee. She’s as cautious as anyone can be as there are many online scams going on.”
But then the scammer transferred the woman to another caller claiming to be from the CID with this number +6582851676, who told her that she had a pending case under investigation.
After the woman made the three transactions amounting to $15,000 and attempted to make another, she received another call, this time from DBS Bank, to tell her that her most recent transfer was rejected because of insufficient funds.
She was further told that with the other transactions, the funds she had transferred went to an Indian person and had not been used to assist in investigations.
The woman proceeded to Ang Mo Kio North NPC, where she filed a report, screenshots of which she attached to her post, along with the fund transfer confirmation messages. However, there was a discrepancy between the amount scammed and the sum recorded on the police report.
“Every scam victim will definitively be shaken up from the horrifying experience they just went through, some victims are scammed their LIFE SAVINGS. The exact amount she transferred can be found in her bank transaction, yet the amount recorded on the statement was wrong,” she explained, asking if “the investigation (would) proceed accordingly when the amount scammed isn’t even recorded down properly”?
She ended her post by writing, “And please la, today might be my grandmother tomorrow it might be yours.”
The Independent Singapore has reached out to Ms Low for further comment.
Fortunately, netizens who commented on her post assured Ms Low that the police report could still be amended to reflect the correct amount swindled from her grandmother.
Others shared their own stories of being scammed.
/TISG
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