It is easy to think that with the high number of scam stories being shared, we would know the difference between a scam and something legitimate.
However, the reality is almost never so black and white.
Earlier this year, a Singaporean man in his 70s was spared from losing $150,000 when a discerning UOB Bank staff managed to convince him that his “girlfriend” is actually a scammer.
A flustered elderly man
It all started when the flustered elderly man walked into UOB Bank’s main branch in Raffles Place trying to bank in a cheque of more than $150,000 to an offshore account.
When service associate Jenny Hong noticed that the name of the account holder and the account number did not match, she got suspicious.
Ms Hong, 46, asked the man why he needed to transfer the money to the overseas account, which agitated him.
“It was odd because he was trying to bank in such a large amount of money into an account that was not his. He kept saying it was very urgent and when I asked him more about it, his answers grew more and more incoherent,” she said.
As things were not adding up, Ms Hong then sought the bank’s assistant branch manager Alison Cheng.
Almost a scam victim
“He said the money was for his girlfriend in the Netherlands,” said Ms Cheng.
“He told me he had just met her on Facebook and knew her for 2 months. She insisted she needed his money to complete a business deal and get commission from it.”
Ms Cheng knew she had to convince the man he was being scammed and persuade him to halt the transfer.
She asked him if he had seen scam articles in the news.
‘He said yes, but insisted he was not being scammed,” she said.
“He said it was love and his girlfriend needed the money urgently,” recounted Ms Cheng.
Thanks to her patience, Ms Cheng was able to change the man’s mind after half an hour of explaining to him about scams.
He finally understood that he had almost become a victim of an Internet love scam.
Ms Cheng added, “The man was suddenly determined and told us not to carry out the transaction.”
He also made a police report.
Good on Ms Hong and Ms Cheng for being so observant! Hopefully, this will be a reminder to everyone to be more aware about scams.
Also read: Elderly Man Loses RM96,000 Due To The Sweet Promises Of His Female Friend Of Over 30 Years
