A 65-year-old woman in Singapore got scammed out of S$100,000 (approximately RM324,003.71), just 4 days after retiring.
In an interview with China Press, Amelia (Pseudonym) shared how she got a call around 6PM on January 9 from someone claiming to be a representative from an e-commerce company.
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They told her to open a new bank account
Amelia revealed how the scammers pretended to be staff from an e-commerce company, a financial services company, and even the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
They told her that her bank account was flagged for suspected money laundering. One of them even instructed her to open a new bank account and transfer her money there to “protect” it.
They also claimed she hadn’t paid for her insurance premium on the e-commerce platform, but she quickly clarified that she didn’t have an account on the platform and asked the scammer to cancel it for her.
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She connected the new account to her personal one
At one point during the conversation, the scammer passed the call to someone named “Jason,” who had the financial service company’s logo as his WhatsApp profile picture, which made her believe he was a legitimate employee.
Jason told her that her bank account was under suspicion for money laundering and that the case would be handed over to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Soon after, she received a call from another person whose profile picture had the MAS logo. The “MAS staff” said Jason would contact her again to sort things out.
“Jason told me to transfer my money to a different bank account to protect it. I followed his instructions, downloaded the suggested bank app, opened an account, and linked it to my personal account,” Amelia said.
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“I just wanted to protect my money”
Amelia ended up talking to the scammers for over 4 hours, which led her sister and niece (who she lives with) to step in and end the call on her behalf.
Not long after, 2 transfers had already been made from Amelia’s personal account: one for S$75,000 (approximately RM243,002.78) and another for S$25,000 (approximately RM81,000.93).
However, a third transaction didn’t go through due to insufficient funds.
“The scammers kept calling me, and I didn’t have time to double-check who they were. One even video-called and sounded really serious, so I got scared. I just wanted to protect my money, so I did what they said.”
Amelia has since filed a police report, cancelled her online banking, and even took the extra step of switching to a new phone.
Also read: Man Retrieves RM94K After Scamming the Scammers Who Stole Money from His Father
