Elderly man befriended by woman on FB who asked for money, love scam foiled by DBS staff and police

An Internet love scam was foiled by the police and DBS Bank on Feb 21, preventing losses of more than $50,000.

A 78-year-old man was befriended by a woman on Facebook, who claimed that she was facing financial difficulties and asked him for a loan.

He transferred money as instructed.

The scammer promised to repay the man through a parcel containing cash and other luxury items but requested that the he pay the customs taxes, logistics holding fees, and an additional foreign currency transaction fee.

This was detected by the DBS Anti-Scam Team, who took swift action to block the suspicious transaction along with the man’s Internet banking access.

When he visited a DBS branch to reinstate his Internet banking access and withdraw his remaining balance, the vigilant branch staff detected something was amiss and promptly escalated the case to the Anti-Scam Centre of the Singapore Police Force.

On the same day, Anti-Scam Centre officers met up with the man in time to convince him to stop the withdrawal amounting to more than $50,000.

Ms Cheryl Wang of the DBS Anti-Scam Team helped prevent an Internet love scam victim from losing more than $50,000.

That was one of four scam cases in February involving men over 60, where the Anti-Scam Centre worked with banks to intercept the funds and engage the victims, convincing them of the deceptive schemes they were entrenched in.

In another case, a 63-year-old man was also befriended by a woman on Facebook, who introduced him to a cryptocurrency investment scheme.

The man was enticed by the promise of quick profits to make several transfers totalling more than $250,000 to different bank accounts.

The transactions were detected by HSBC and escalated to the Anti-Scam Centre on Feb 15 February 2024, which promptly reached out to the victim, who was residing overseas and managed to dissuade him from making further transfers.

At the same time, Anti-Scam Centre reached out to the receiving banks and recovered more than S$90,000.

In the third case, a 71-year-old man was introduced to an investment opportunity by his "friend", who allegedly resided in Hong Kong.

The duo had maintained contact via various messaging platforms.

On Feb 3, on instructions of the "friend", the man transferred funds from his account to a local corporate account to invest in a F&B company, believing that the company was owned by the "friend" who promised to match the amount the victim had invested through a fake investment platform.

The man believed the investment was genuine as he could see the supposed account balance on the fake investment platform.

On Feb 7, under the "friend’s" instructions, the man attempted to transfer more than $50,000 from his Standard Chartered Bank account as payment to a fictitious supplier.

The bank's anti-fraud team detected the transfers, and the case was referred to the Anti-Scam Centre, where officers swiftly engaged the victim and successfully convinced the man about the scam.

Ms Palkim Mao and DSP Timothy Ng working on an intervention case to prevent more than $50,000 loss from an investment scam victim.

In the fourth case, a 74-year-old man received a pop-up notification on his laptop to alert him that his machine was corrupted.

Unaware that it could be a scam, he called the helpdesk hotline provided in the pop-up notification.

The call was then transferred to an "official from the Cyber Security Department" who informed the man that his bank account had been compromised and that he was required to transfer more than $70,000 to a bank account in Hong Kong to help “catch the scammers”.

He was also informed that “the officials” would transfer the money required for this transaction into his account.

The man proceeded to the OCBC Bedok branch to make the overseas funds transfer over the counter. A vigilant OCBC branch employee detected the red flags and found the man’s account suspicious.

The employee sought the advice and assistance of a colleague from the OCBC Anti-Scam Unit, who helped to place a hold on the man’s account to prevent other transactions on his account.

Officers from the Anti-Scam Centre engaged the victim on the same day and successfully prevented the victim from making further transfers.

Mr Peck Chun Hua and Ms Pong Siew Choo helped to prevent a 74-year-old victim from losing more than $70,000 to a tech support scam.