Young parents lost about S$70,000 in phone scam

SINGAPORE — Armed with nearly 10 years’ worth of hard-earned savings, first-time parents Joanne and Mark (not their real names) were ready to move to an executive condominium with their three-month-old son, when they fell prey to a phone scam and lost almost S$70,000 of their savings to conmen posing as police officers.

The incident happened on July 2 and since then, Joanne has been depressed and having sleepless nights, not to mention having to tend to her newborn during her maternity leave. When asked if she knew about recent media reports and warnings from the police about phone scams, Joanne said that she had been too tired to keep up with the news.

The couple, both 30, have not told their family or friends and do not want to be identified. They are living off money borrowed from a friend, and staying put in their five-room flat for now.

In recent weeks, various government agencies have issued advisories cautioning the public against scams, mostly involving impersonations, including the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

Last month, the police said residents here have lost more than S$4 million since March to parcel scammers, who operate through phone calls.

When contacted, the police said that investigations into this case are ongoing.

The scam took place that Saturday morning when Joanne received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Singapore Police Force. They told her about suspected criminal activity in Beijing, China involving her credit card, which appeared to have fallen in the wrong hands.

She was later transferred to a Mandarin-speaking officer from Beijing, who said that they needed her personal particulars to verify her identity. They also told her she would run into legal trouble if she told anyone about the call. Joanne then spent the next three hours in her room talking to them.

She recalled: “At that moment, I was so shocked and frightened that I wasn’t able to think logically.”

She learnt that the “police” would have to freeze her DBS bank account to prevent any money from being transferred to unknown parties, and to check if it held any “hidden” funds.

Later, she was put to a “supervisor”, who told her to go online to a “China police force” website to key in her bank account details in a form to speed up investigations. They also needed her Internet banking PIN number, to help track and locate suspects using it.

After she gave the information, the “supervisor” said he would call her back to help submit the form and hung up quickly. “I was so stressed out, I couldn’t think,” Joanne recalled. “I just wanted to settle the problem as soon as possible.” 
At lunch later and calmer, she asked her husband if she had ever lost her credit card before, and told him what happened. In a flash, Mark realised they had been duped. 
When they called DBS, they discovered that they had just about S$6 left in their account.

Joanne now worries about how to pay off their various car, housing and credit-card loans. She also questioned why they did not get any SMS alert from the bank when such a large sum was being withdrawn. 
Mark, who is an engineer, said: “If only I hadn’t gone out to set up a new savings account for our baby that day, maybe this wouldn’t have happened… We can only hope that we can warn others about this, and to get our money back from the bank.”