Single mum of 4 gets fake SingPost SMS to pay for delivery of kids' stationery, loses $2,300 to scam

A single mother lost $2,300 of her savings after responding to an SMS that she thought was from Singapore Post (SingPost).

Stomper Begum wants to share her painful experience in hopes that it doesn't befall someone else.

"Being a single mother of four and being proactive in my daily life in the upkeep of my children's studies, bringing food to the table is a challenging daily task," said the Stomper.

"However, my life stressor shot to maximum when I was scammed by a fake SingPost company who texted me to pay for delivery fees for school-based stationery that I brought for my children."

She believed everything was normal when the "SingPost" website redirected her to a bank to pay for the delivery.

"Within the same day, I lost almost $800," said the Stomper, who shared a screenshot of the deductions from her account.

"I made a report as soon as possible and blocked my cards, but several further transactions under earmarked funds took over and the bank was unable to do anything."

She lost $2,298.62 in total from Nov 23 to 26.

"This is a big amount of money which I saved slowly for contingency purposes. I made a police report and asked DBS, if they could reinstate the amount, but till today, they have been unable to help," she said.

In response to a Stomp query, the police confirmed a report was lodged.

The Stomper said: "Every day, I am losing my sanity thinking about this matter and blaming my hopelessness for my unintentional mistake. Will grace be shown to a single mother who is trying to bring up her children in a moral manner?

"I am losing hope of anyone being able to assist me to reclaim my hard-earned savings of three years."

She added: "Please, scammers, have a heart for us low-SES families."

On its website, SingPost warns of scammers using SMS disguised as delivery notifications to target SingPost customers by tricking them into accessing fake websites to make payments or to provide sensitive personal information.

Payments to SingPost can only be done via the SingPost mobile app, at SAM machines or any post office but never through an online link.