Woman, 77, wants to withdraw $200k at Holland Village bank for nephew's wedding, raises staff's suspicion
A 77-year-old woman wanted to make a cash withdrawal of $200,000 at DBS Bank's Holland Village branch on April 2.
When the staff enquired on the purpose of the transaction, the woman explained that it was for her nephew's wedding.
As she had already withdrawn $160,000 the day before, the staff became suspicious and referred her to the DBS Bank Anti-Scam team, who sought assistance from Anti-Scam Centre of the Singapore Police Force to intervene.
Officers from the Anti-Scam Centre discovered that the woman had been contacted by an unknown caller who allegedly claimed to be "telecommunications company staff" and referred her to scammers impersonating Hong Kong police and staff of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The scammer posing as Hong Kong police told her that she was being investigated for money laundering and had to withdraw $620,000 to hand over to MAS staff for investigation purposes.
The foiled scam was one of two such cases in April where the Anti-Scam Centre collaborated with DBS Bank and the Singpass Anti-Fraud Team, said the police in a news release on May 29.
In the other case, a 44-year-old man was contacted on April 2 by an unknown caller who allegedly claimed to be Citibank staff and told him that a credit card he had applied for was used to purchase cryptocurrency.
When the man denied applying for the credit card, the caller referred him to another scammer posing as MAS staff who told the man that he was under investigation for money laundering and would need to transfer $200,000 to a DBS bank account provided by the scammer for investigation purposes.
The fake MAS staff also asked the man to share his screen via WhatsApp while making the transfer.
Anti-scam measures implemented by Anti-Scam Centre and the Singpass Anti-Fraud Team allowed the DBS Bank Anti-Mule Team to detect suspicious activities in the scammers' bank account.
They intercepted the transfer and successfully prevent the loss of $200,00 for the man.
You are advised by police to adopt the following precautionary measures to avoid getting scammed:
- Add the ScamShield app and set security features such as transaction limits for internet banking transactions and multifactor authentication.
- Check for scam signs with official sources such as the ScamShield helpline (1799) and www.scamshield.gov.sg.
- Tell the authorities, family, and friends about scams. Report any fraudulent transactions to your bank immediately.
