'They only communicated online': UOB staff stop woman from losing $500k to 'critically ill husband in Europe'

SINGAPORE – When Ms Teo Shaw Leng was alerted in August that an elderly customer was claiming she needed to withdraw around $500,000 for her critically ill “husband” in Europe, the deputy manager of UOB’s PLQ branch in Paya Lebar sensed something was wrong.

She approached the customer, who was in her 70s, for more information, and saw a message from a foreign number pop up on the woman’s phone which read: “Honey, are you ok?”

This heightened her suspicion that the woman had fallen for a scam, and the deputy branch manager jumped into action immediately.

She spoke to the woman privately and learnt the latter had already withdrawn $300,000 from another bank to pay the medical bills of her “husband”.

She then asked for proof of their marriage, but the woman could not provide any evidence.

Ms Teo told The Straits Times: “From our conversation, I learnt that she had been in a relationship with this man for over six months and they had communicated only online.

“She showed me photos of the hospital and sounded panicked when she talked about needing to send the money over.”

Ms Teo alerted her superiors and the bank’s fraud investigation team, which froze the customer’s account.

It took around four hours for Ms Teo and the police to convince the woman that the man she loved was actually a scammer.

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For her quick thinking, which saved a customer from losing her insurance savings to a love scam, Ms Teo was among 82 UOB bank staff who were recognised at the bank’s inaugural scam prevention awards on Dec 7.

Between July 2022 and June 2023, these employees each stopped at least one customer from falling prey to a scam.

At the event, a UOB spokesman said the bank had prevented a total of 140 scams during that period, saving customers from losing almost $4 million.

He added that women above 60 years old were the most common victims helped by UOB staff.

The most prevalent scams in 2023 were love scams and impersonations of government officials and friends, the spokesman said.

At the ceremony, National Crime Prevention Council chairman Gerald Singham lauded the awardees for their efforts in fighting scams.

He said: “Scams are really the scourge of our era. In the early decades of Singapore’s independence, fighting crime might have been easier as they were physical crimes.

“If there is a murder, a murderer is physically in Singapore... Scams are very difficult because many of the perpetrators are not in Singapore.”

Figures released by the Singapore Police Force in July showed there were 22,339 scam cases reported from January to June 2023, a 64.5 per cent increase from the 13,576 cases during the same period in 2022.

The total amount victims lost in the first half of 2023 dipped slightly to $334.5 million, from $342.1 million during the same period in 2022.

Mr Singham added that UOB has been at the front line of fighting scams and the bank has done foremost work in helping to reduce such crime.

“The NCPC and the police cannot fight scams alone, it is a shared responsibility,” he said.

Mr Benny Chan, managing director of group channels and digitalisation at UOB, said everyone in the bank – from process optimisation and technological support to customer engagement – plays a part in protecting customers’ monies from falling into the wrong hands.

He thanked the Singapore Police Force and its Anti-Scam Command for sharing intelligence with UOB and helping the bank stop suspicious transactions.

Another awardee at the ceremony was Mr Nigel Chua, senior vice-president of UOB’s risk and assurance team.

He helped save a customer in her 70s from losing around $20,000 in a bank official impersonation scam in early November.

The customer had requested assistance from the bank to transfer the sum to her cousin to help pay for his renovation, which Mr Chua said is a cover often used by potential scam victims.

He alerted the bank’s fraud investigation unit and placed a temporary alert on her bank account so other UOB branches would perform checks if she attempted to transfer money again.

Investigations later found that the account she attempted to transfer money to belonged to a money mule.

Mr Chua said: “I find it very meaningful to be handling scam cases in my day-to-day work.

“I know how traumatic it is for the victims. They don’t just lose money, many of them also face blame from their family members.

“I’m glad I am able to do my part in protecting customers from losing their hard-earned money.”

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.