S'pore retiree, 65, scammed of S$100,000 after retiring for 3 days
She talked to the scammers for more than 4 hours.
Instead of enjoying her retirement, a 65-year-old woman in Singapore who had been retired for just three days got scammed of S$100,000 of her life savings.
The scammers, posing as staff from Shopee, UnionPay and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), allegedly told her that her bank account had been suspected for money laundering.
One allegedly instructed her to open a new bank account, and transfer her money there to "safeguard" it.
Scammers posed as Shopee, MAS, bank staff
The woman, who is single and lives with her sister, told Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min) that she retired on Jan. 6.
Three days later, on Jan. 9, she received a call at around 6pm from a person claiming to be a Shopee customer service staff.
The scammer told her that she had not paid for her insurance premium on the platform.
The woman replied that she did not even have a Shopee account, and could not have bought insurance, so she requested the person to cancel it.
Sometime during the conversation, the scammer transferred the call to a person named "Jason".
The woman said that Jason had a UnionPay logo on his WhatsApp profile picture, so she thought he was a bank employee.
Jason told her that her bank account was suspected of involvement in money laundering, and said the case would be transferred to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
This was followed up by a WhatsApp call from a third person, whose profile picture bore the MAS logo, the woman said.
The "MAS staff" told her that Jason would contact her again to resolve the problem.
"Jason asked me to transfer funds into a GXS bank account in order to safeguard my money. I followed his instructions, downloaded the GXS app and opened an account, before connecting it to my UOB account," said the woman.
Spoke to scammers for more than 4 hours
The woman said she was unclear of what happened next. She spoke to the scammers for more than four hours, even skipping dinner to do so.
Noticing this, the woman's sister asked her several times to hang up, but she did not.
The woman's sister even called her niece, surnamed Wu (transliteration), to come over and help.
When Wu arrived at 10pm, the woman was still on the phone and tried to log in to another bank account on the instructions of the scammers.
"We kept telling her it was a scam and to hang up, but she refused to listen, so I hung up for her," said Wu.
Lost S$100,000
When the dust had settled, two transfers were made from the woman's UOB account, S$75,000 and S$25,000 respectively.
A third transaction failed as her account had insufficient funds.
Wu added that her aunt had forgotten the password to her other bank account, so she couldn't log in and the money remained intact.
Wu subsequently helped her aunt to check the GXS account and also found it empty.
After finding out she had been defrauded, the woman called the police, cancelled her online banking account and changed a new phone.
I was afraid of the scammers: Woman
"I just retired on Jan. 6, and got scammed on Jan. 9," the woman told Shin Min.
She said the S$100,000 sum had been stored in a fixed deposit which matured last December, and that she was making plans to reinvest the money when the scammers took it.
The woman said that she does not usually answer calls from unknown callers, but somehow did so that day, and added that she obeyed the scammers out of fear.
"The scammers kept calling me, and I didn't have time to verify their identity. One even video-called me and sounded very serious, so I was afraid. I just wanted to safeguard my money, so I did everything they said."
The police confirmed with Mothership that a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing.
Top image from Canva/Shin Min Daily News
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