Source: DBS on Facebook and Kaspars Grinvalds on Canva
On day one of the Chinese New Year (CNY), a 76-year-old woman who had fallen for an online love scam wanted to transfer S$15,000 to a man she had known online for only three months. It was supposedly for him to “buy a plane ticket” to return to Singapore.
After discovering this, a female staff at DBS Bank promptly dissuaded the woman to prevent her from losing money during CNY, according to Lianhe Zaobao.
DBS Bank uploaded a video on Instagram on Thursday (6 Feb), which showed that the bank’s anti-fraud team prevented an online love scam on the first day of CNY (29 Jan).
Anti-fraud team investigator Ms Wu Enqi (name transliterated), 31, said in the video that while on duty on the first day of CNY, she learned that the 76-year-old had attempted to transfer S$15,000 to a suspicious bank account five times.
Sensing something was amiss, Ms Enqi immediately called the woman to learn about the situation.
She said the woman had tried to transfer the money several times in succession but was unsuccessful as the bank intercepted the transfers due to the strange circumstances around it.
The woman revealed that the person she wanted to transfer money to was an online “friend” who claimed to work in Germany.
After chatting for three months, he suddenly told the woman that he needed money to buy an air ticket to return to Singapore and persuaded her to make a transfer.
Ms Enqi said that all the “red flags” in this fraud case were clear in this incident.
These included the fact that they had never met before, the other party suddenly asking for large sums of money, and the receiving account being used having a trail of suspicious activities.
“I told the woman that this was an online love scam and that he was a scammer. Fortunately, she listened and believed me.”
Ms Enqi shared that scammers will not take a “holiday”. In contrast, scammers are known to intensify their fraud efforts during the festive season as people are more trusting and generous during this time.
“Scammers know exactly how to take advantage of that,” she said.
As such, fraud cases tend to rise during the festive period. At the end of the video, she reminded the public to be vigilant and to decline immediately if a stranger suddenly asks for money on social media.
“If you suspect that you have been targetted by a scammer, stop all contact, lodge a police report, and notify your bank immediately,” she instructed.
Also read: Divorced S’pore Man Finds Love Online, Gets Scammed Of S$110K After Sending Her ‘Investment Funds’
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Featured image adapted from DBS on Facebook and Kaspars Grinvalds on Canva for illustration purposes only.
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