Woman loses $330k to scammers despite bank's and police's warnings

Insisting on transferring money to an online 'friend', a woman disregarded the advice of bank staff and police officers who suspected she had fallen for a scam.

When she realised she was conned, the woman had already exhausted her savings and even taken out loans, losing a total of about $330,000 to scammers.

Peck Chun Hua, investigator at OCBC's anti-scam unit, told Shin Min Daily News that the woman in her 30s had wanted to transfer $20,000 to an international bank account on April 16.

As there was no prior transfer history, the bank's fraud analyst contacted the woman to confirm the transaction and found that she was speaking anxiously and could not reasonably explain the purpose of the transfer.

During the phone call, the fraud analyst also discovered the woman wanted to make five transactions to two bank accounts and only had an email address but not the recipient's name.

The case was then flagged to investigator Peck, who learnt from colleagues at the police's Anti-Scam Centre that the recipient's account was marked as suspicious. He blocked the transaction and alerted the police.

Despite the police's efforts to dissuade the woman, she insisted on making the transaction.

Several days after the first transfer was blocked, the woman performed multiple transfers totalling about $30,000 from her second OCBC account to an international account under her name.

Peck suspended the account and called the police again, but the woman demanded the bank unfreeze her account and approve the transaction.

At a meeting with OCBC staff, the woman signed an indemnity form confirming she was aware of the risks involved, and the bank allowed the transfer.

'We felt so helpless': Investigator

In June, the woman filed a police report, admitting that she had been scammed.

The woman, who originally had over $130,000 in her two OCBC savings accounts, was left with less than $600.

She had lost her savings and taken loans after believing in the 'high return investment' opportunity introduced by the scammers, according to Shin Min.

"We did so much, but we still couldn't save her from herself," Peck told The Straits Times. "It was particularly painful, knowing she had been so influenced by scammers that she did not even want to listen to us or the police."

He added: "To be honest, the funds are hers, and she has every right to spend it on what she wants. We had all the tools and the knowledge about scams, but we felt so helpless."

The Protection from Scams Bill introduced in Parliament on Nov 11 aims to protect such scam victims by allowing the police to issue restriction orders (RO) to banks if there is reasonable belief that scam victims will make monetary transfers to the scammer.

If the bill is passed, money transfers, ATM facilities and all credit facilities will be restricted for potential scam victims. The RO will be maintained for a maximum of 30 days, and the police may request up to five extensions, each also lasting 30 days.

"The RO will be issued only as a last resort, after other options to convince the individual have been exhausted," said the Ministry of Home Affairs.

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lim.kewei@asiaone.com