'I still can't get over it': Scam victim who transferred $1.19m to syndicate

When told by a “police officer” that she might be implicated in money laundering, a woman feared she would be dragged into the $3 billion case.

Wanting to be known only as Grace, the retiree, 67, said that even though she was never involved in crime, she thought about Singapore’s biggest money laundering case that saw 10 foreigners jailed and deported.

Threatened with legal action, she agreed to help in “investigations” and transferred a total of $1.19 million to people claiming to be a bank officer, police investigator and public prosecutors.

And even after she talked to real police officers, she said she still does not want to know how much she has lost.

Grace spoke to the media on Nov 28.

Before the interview, organised by the police, reporters were briefed by officers that she did not know the full amount, and did not want to know.

Grace told reporters she had no intention of telling her husband or family members.

She said: “Even when I was giving my statement to the police, I said I don’t want to know how much I’ve lost. Even until today, I didn’t really look into it.”

Grace had been visiting relatives in China when she received a call on the morning of May 15 from someone claiming to be from a bank, who said her card had been used for suspicious transactions.

The call was transferred to someone claiming to be a police officer, who told Grace to move away from her family to discuss confidential matters and to not tell them anything.

She said: “They told me, ‘You must keep it confidential. If you mention it, I cannot do my investigative work.’ So, I just accepted it.”

For the next three hours, Grace locked herself in a room in the relatives’ house, speaking to the scammers over the phone.

They convinced her she was under investigation for money laundering, and that she would have to check in with them four times a day for the next month through WhatsApp, or risk prosecution.

She panicked when she thought of the $3 billion money laundering case. She said: “Because of that, I became quite worried and didn’t want to be involved.”

So, she continued talking to the scammers.

They told her about a “priority financial investigation” scheme that would require her to transfer her money to different bank accounts to verify it was clean.

Such schemes do not exist, said a police spokesman.

When it was time for lunch, one of the relatives knocked on the door and asked Grace what was going on.

When Grace said she was trying to settle something at the bank with the police, the relative asked if she was sure it was a real police officer. But Grace brushed it off, saying she was sure.

She returned to Singapore the next day. About a week later, she transferred between $90,001 and $99,999 each time at the behest of the scammers.

The scammers had convinced her that the five-digit numbers she was keying into her banking app were “verification codes” that always began with a nine. She did not know the “verification codes” were actually the amount of money she was sending them.

They also coached her on what to say when the banks inquired about the transactions, telling her to lie that it was to buy watches or a condominium.

Within a month, she had transferred a total of $1.19 million to the scammers.

Grace said: “I’m quite careful because I’ve been hearing people say, ‘Don’t give your OTP (one-time password), don’t give your password’. I’m very mindful of this.

“But when it came to this, (the scammers) just told me whatever it was, for the investigation, all the money would be returned.”

The scam was picked up only when Mr Poh Leong Hui, an anti-scam unit investigator with OCBC Bank, got suspicious when an OCBC account received a large transfer from a foreign bank account belonging to Grace on June 24. He flagged it to Senior Staff Sergeant Matthew Li, a senior investigation officer at the police’s Anti-Scam Centre, who told Grace she might be a scam victim.

She met him at the Police Cantonment Complex four days later, and her case was classified as a government official impersonation scam.

The number of such scams has spiked, with at least $120 million lost in 1,100 cases reported from January to October, said the police and the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Nov 30.

This is almost double the $67 million lost in 680 cases during the same period in 2023.

Like in Grace’s case, the scammers would impersonate bank staff and call victims, claiming they have a credit card under their name that had been used for suspicious transactions.

The call would be transferred to scammers impersonating law enforcement officers, who would then claim the victims needed to transfer their money to “safety accounts” to assist in investigations.

These scammers would often use fake police badges or backdrops, and may sometimes recite victims’ personal details to seem legitimate.

Members of the public should call the ScamShield helpline on 1799 to confirm if they are being scammed.

Grace said she is trying to remain positive while dealing with her ordeal.

She said: “I really believed (the scammers). I couldn’t differentiate between them and the real police. I still can’t get over it... Just give me time. I must stay positive.”

She said she supported the intrusive laws proposed to help stubborn scam victims.

If the laws are passed, police will be given powers to issue restriction orders to banks, which will then restrict the banking transactions of an individual’s accounts, including money transfers, the use of ATM facilities and all credit facilities.

The orders will take effect for up to 30 days at a time, and can be extended up to five times, meaning the controls can last for six months.

The intrusiveness of the proposed laws has raised some eyebrows.

Grace said: “But for my case, I’m very glad that someone came in. At least I didn’t lose more than that.”