Scammers are coming up with increasingly innovative ways to cheat poor victims of their hard-earned money.
Recently, a woman in Singapore thought she found a good deal when she came across an online grocer selling beverages for cheap.
However, when she downloaded the grocery store’s mobile app, she found herself losing a staggering S$200,000 instead. After lodging a police report, she even received a call from someone impersonating an officer.
The woman then had to make yet another report, and investigations are currently underway.
Speaking to Lianhe Zaobao, the woman, 56-year-old Madam Lee, said that she came across the online grocery store’s Facebook page on 4 June.
The online store was apparently selling drinks for cheap. As Madam Lee was hosting a gathering at her place soon, she thought she could buy the beverages from the store as it was a good deal.
After messaging the store, they asked for her phone number to reach out over WhatsApp.
“They wanted me to download their app and place my order there. After I downloaded it, I felt something was amiss, so I did not reply to them,” she recalled.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
After that, the grocers claimed to have sent her S$20 via PayNow as a reward for signing up for the app.
However, Madam Lee still found it suspicious, so she ignored them and did not check if she had indeed received the reward.
As a precaution, she also consulted her nephew, who also thought things were not right. As such, he advised her to delete the app.
A few days later, Madam Lee received a WhatsApp message from a man. He claimed to have mistakenly transferred her S$128 that was meant for his girlfriend.
“At first, I wanted to ignore him. Later, he said the money was for his girlfriend to use in an emergency,” she shared.
The man reportedly told Madam Lee that he accidentally transferred the money to her as her phone number is similar to his girlfriend’s.
Although she has Internet banking and PayNow enabled, she does not like to use them. So, she got her nephew to transfer the money to the man instead.
That same day, Madam Lee received a notification from “Compass For Android” on her Android phone.
As she did not recall ever downloading such an app, she got someone to uninstall it for her too.
Two days later, when she met her nephew, she discovered two more “strange” apps on her phone and immediately removed them.
When she checked her bank account, she noticed eight unauthorised transactions amounting to S$199,996.
“At that point, I immediately froze my account and lodged a police report,” she said.
A week later, Madam Lee received a call from someone claiming to be a police officer from the Woodlands Police Division. However, she had reported her case to the police in Ang Mo Kio instead.
The other party claimed there were too many cases so the Ang Mo Kio division transferred her case to the Woodlands one.
This “officer” claimed to be able to help her “unfreeze” her account and wanted to meet her in Woodlands so she could assist with investigations.
When the call ended, she realised the number the “officer” used was the same one as the man who claimed to have accidentally transferred her money.
She quickly lodged a second police report about this.
It has been about a month since the incident, but Madam Lee said there has been no progress in both the police and the bank investigations.
“I already gave the police the man’s number. Now, all I wish for is to get back the S$200,000 I was scammed out of,” she sighed.
Responding to queries from Lianhe Zaobao, the police confirmed that they have received both reports and that investigations are still ongoing.
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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao.
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