Man told to transfer $600k refuses to believe he was being scammed

When a man in his 60s transferred $70,000 to another bank account and wanted to withdraw the rest of his life savings of more than $600,000, a DBS Bank officer stepped in.

Instead of providing a valid reason when the officer asked what it was for, the man grew agitated and refused to say much, which were immediate red flags.

Recalling the case which took place in September, Mr Uthayakumar Chellappan Silvaraju, a senior associate with DBS’ anti-scam team, said he was determined to prevent the man from losing his life savings.

Said Mr Kumar: “During the first two calls I had with him, he was evasive. On the third call, I asked him, ‘Are you sure you want to risk your life savings you worked so hard for?’

“That was when he broke down and said he was doing this under someone’s instructions, but he still refused to believe that he was being scammed.”

The bank subsequently handed the case over to the police’s Anti-Scam Centre (ASC).

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Timothy Ng, officer-in-charge at the ASC, said he suspected the man was a victim of a government official impersonation scam as his answers sounded coached and rehearsed.

“At first he was evasive, then he told me he wanted to withdraw his life savings and put them in an account with better interest rates.

“But knowing that a scammer impersonating the police had probably got to him, my role was to calm him down and tell him that he was not under investigation or in trouble with the authorities,” said DSP Ng.

The next morning, the man realised he had been scammed, changed his mind about transferring the $600,000, and lodged a police report.

DSP Ng said: “It was a relief because he would have lost such a large amount of money.”

Not all scam victims can be convinced they are being duped.

That is why the Protection from Scams Bill was introduced in Parliament on Nov 11. In what is believed to be a world first, it proposes giving the police powers to control the bank accounts of victims.

If passed, the police will be allowed to issue restriction orders to banks, which will then limit the banking transactions of an individual’s accounts.

Bank officers and officers at the ASC said they often need to spend a lot of time convincing victims they have been scammed.

Dr Lim Boon Leng, a psychiatrist at Gleneagles Hospital, said scammers often spend a great deal of time and effort emotionally manipulating their victims to gain their trust.

He said: “They often exploit psychological vulnerabilities of the victims, such as loneliness and greed. By doing so, they create an intense emotional bond with the victims, and these intense emotions override rational thinking.”

Dr Lim said some victims could be in a state of grief after having already lost a certain amount of money.

He added: “So, when the police or the authorities tell them they’ve been scammed, it is in a way confirming that loss, and they may refuse to listen because they are in denial about it.”

In other cases, scammers may employ social engineering and tell the victim details of his own life, like how the scammer himself had been cheated before, to build rapport.

Then, when the police or bank officers inform the victims they have been scammed, it is harder to convince them, as trust has already been built with the scammer, Dr Lim said.

He added that in government official impersonation scams, scammers may even pre-empt their victims that there would be “other authorities” who would try to convince them that they have been scammed.

Said Dr Lim: “This may then follow with threats that if the victim does not go through with the instructions given, there would be consequences.

“So when the scammer’s narrative pans out and ‘another authority figure’ calls the victim, the victim would then be more likely to believe the scammer instead of the real authorities.”

Government official impersonation scams were among the top 10 scams in the first half of 2024, with victims losing more than $67 million.

DBS’ Mr Kumar said he has encountered victims who clearly have been coached in their responses.

He said: “In such cases, we know that the victims have already been hooked by the scammers, and the banks can only do so much.

“But we will still try our best to convince them, no matter the amount of money involved, because these are the savings our customers have worked so hard for.”