Singapore Police Work with Two Major Banks to Help Scam Victims Avoid $900,000 in Losses

DBS bank and OCBC bank managed to help victims avoid $900,000 in losses in two scam cases.

On February 15, a 57-year-old woman received a call from an “insurance broker” asking her to pay for an insurance policy in her name, which the woman did not purchase.

The scammer then transferred her to another scammer posing as a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) staff member and told her to assist in the investigation. Under the guise of protecting funds, the scammer instructed her to transfer money to a designated bank account.

Two days later, the victim intended to transfer $52,000 she had deposited with DBS bank to the fraudsters, which attracted the attention of the bank's anti-fraud department. The bank and police officers from the Anti-scam Center (ASC) quickly intervened and attempted to make the victim aware of the suspicious situation, and the victim realized that she had fallen for a government official impersonation scam.

In another case, OCBC Bank managed to avoid an $850,000 loss for the victim.

On Feb 18, a 72-year-old woman claimed that she wanted to lend $500,000 to a friend who was looking for a job, but OCBC Bank staff sensed something was wrong and reported the matter to the Singapore Police Force's ASC with the suspicion that she might have been defrauded.

The police intervened and discovered that the elderly woman's friend, a 40-year-old man, was a victim of a job scam.

In January, the man received a friend request from the scammer on a social media platform and was given a job offer. The scammer asked him to open a merchant shop on the fraudulent e-commerce site and fulfill so-called “sales” orders.

To fulfill the “job” task, the man deposited at least $580,000 on the platform between February 3 and 17, but the funds were still insufficient. Therefore, he wanted to borrow $500,000 from the elderly woman to top up another $350,000.

The two victims managed to avoid a loss of $850,000 because of the intervention of OCBC Bank and the police.