On 3 October 2016 and 5 October 2016, staff of the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) Harbourfront branch and Hanshan Money Express Pte Ltd foiled two scam attempts involving US$1670 and SG$18,826.40 respectively.
On 3 October 2016, a 67-year-old woman had visited the DBS Harbourfront branch to remit a sum of US$1670 to an overseas bank account. The staff at the bank suspected something was amiss before informing her supervisor who stopped the transaction. At the advice of the bank staff, the woman lodged a police report. Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman had earlier befriended a man through Facebook who had offered to help her recover uncollected overseas debt in return for a service fee of US$1670.
For the second case, the Police were alerted to a suspected case of cheating by Mr. Huang Jian Hui from Hanshan Money Express Pte Ltd on 6 October 2016 Officers from Central Division and Commercial Affairs Department responded to the case and ascertained that an 83-year-old female victim had been scammed into remitting $18,826.40 to an overseas account. Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim’s friend had received a phone call from an unknown man who offered to provide his legal to make travel arrangements for her boyfriend overseas. He informed the friend of the victim to transfer the service fee to an overseas bank account. Acceding to her friend’s plea for monetary assistance, the victim and her friend then brought the requested sum of money to Hanshan Money Express Pte Ltd for remittance. Suspecting that something was amiss, Mr Huang notified his supervisor who stopped the requested transaction before alerting the Police.
These cases highlight the strong Police-Community partnership in crime fighting. The Police would like to commend the staff of DBS and Hanshan Money Express Pte Ltd for their civic-mindedness and timely interventions that helped foil the scam attempts.
The Police would like to advise members of public to take precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
a. Ignore the calls. Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore. If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
b. Ignore instruction to remit or transfer money. No government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party's bank account.
c. Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals.
d. Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotion and err in your judgment.
e. If you have information related to such crime or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or dial 999 for urgent Police assistance.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
07 October 2016 @ 10:30 PM