‘We couldn’t save her from herself’: How scam victim went from $130k in savings to $600 in 2 months

The Straits Times11-24 05:00

SINGAPORE – In April, a woman in her 30s with more than $130,000 in her two OCBC savings accounts wanted to transfer $20,000 to an international bank. Suspecting she had fallen prey to a scam, five ...

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}\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\n‘We couldn’t save her from herself’: How scam victim went from $130k in savings to $600 in 2 months\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2024-11-24 05:00 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/we-couldnt-save-her-from-herself-how-scam-victim-went-from-130k-in-savings-to-600-in-2-months><strong>The Straits Times</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>SINGAPORE – In April, a woman in her 30s with more than $130,000 in her two OCBC savings accounts wanted to transfer $20,000 to an international bank.\nSuspecting she had fallen prey to a scam, five ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/we-couldnt-save-her-from-herself-how-scam-victim-went-from-130k-in-savings-to-600-in-2-months\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"IE0031814969.USD","symbol_name":"FSSA ASEAN ALL CAP FUND \"I\" (USD) ACC","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/we-couldnt-save-her-from-herself-how-scam-victim-went-from-130k-in-savings-to-600-in-2-months","article_id":"2485738901","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":[],"rights":{"source":"straits_highlight","url":"https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/we-couldnt-save-her-from-herself-how-scam-victim-went-from-130k-in-savings-to-600-in-2-months","rn_cache_url":null,"customStyle":"","selectors":"body","filters":"","directOrigin":true},"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2485738901","pubTimestamp":1732395600,"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"straits_highlight","name":"Straits Times"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"SINGAPORE – In April, a woman in her 30s with more than $130,000 in her two OCBC savings accounts wanted to transfer $20,000 to an international bank.Suspecting she had fallen prey to a scam, five officers from OCBC Bank and the police’s Anti-Scam Centre tried to talk her out of making the transaction.Over three days, they made at least five calls to her, each lasting over 30 minutes, to convince her she was being duped.But the woman, a claims manager, refused to believe them and insisted it was a loan to a friend. She even signed an indemnity form with OCBC confirming she knew the risks involved.Having exhausted all means, OCBC allowed the transaction to go through.Two months later, she filed a police report, finally admitting she had been scammed. By then, she was left with less than $600 in both accounts. One of them had just $17.In Singapore, more than $2.7 billion has been lost to scams since 2019, with losses expected to rise in 2025. 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She even signed an indemnity form with OCBC confirming she knew the risks involved.\nHaving exhausted all means, OCBC allowed the transaction to go through.\nIt did not take long for her to realise her mistake.\n\n\n\nTwo months later, she filed a police report, finally admitting she had been scammed. By then, she was left with less than $600 in both accounts. One of them had just $17.\n\nIn her police report, she said she not only transferred scammers the $130,000 from her OCBC accounts, but had also lost a total of about $330,000 after taking multiple loans and emptying out her accounts at other banks.\nOCBC’s anti-scam unit investigator Peck Chun Hua recounted this case to The Straits Times on Nov 20 to show how difficult it can be to help stubborn scam victims who insist they are not being scammed despite evidence showing they are. \nThis comes after the Protection from Scams Bill was introduced in Parliament on Nov 11.\n\n\n\nThe Bill proposes giving the police powers to control the bank accounts of victims like this woman.\nIf the Bill is passed, the police will be allowed to issue restriction orders (ROs) to banks, which will then limit the banking transactions of an individual’s accounts. Singapore is believed to be the first in the world to propose such a law.\nCurrently, the police cannot stop a victim from doing what he wants with his money, even if he is suspected of being scammed.\nThe Ministry of Home Affairs said based on previous cases in which the police were unsuccessful in intervening, 10 or more ROs could be issued monthly.\nMr Peck, who was overseeing the woman’s case, said: “It was painful knowing she had lost so much of her money. We did so much but we still couldn’t save her from herself. 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.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nMr Peck Chun Hua, OCBC Anti-Scam Unit investigator. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore On This Topic\n\n \n\nHow did S’pore end up needing ‘nanny’ laws to save scam victims from themselves?\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMr Peck said during the multiple calls made to her, she was anxious for the funds to be transferred.\nHe 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.”\nIn Singapore, more than $2.7 billion has been lost to scams since 2019, with losses expected to rise in 2025. Scam numbers hit record highs in the first half of 2024, with more than $385.6 million lost in 26,587 reported cases.\nDeputy Superintendent of Police Timothy Ng, officer-in-charge at the Anti-Scam Centre, recalled a case in August, where a woman in her 50s wanted to transfer $20,000 to help “a friend” pay for an overseas medical treatment.\nWhen he called to ask her about her friend’s medical condition and to warn her this could be a scam, she became defensive.\nDSP Ng said: “She told me these were her own private matters, and asked why I was asking so many questions. I explained she might not get her money back if she insisted on making the transaction. But she told me, ‘If I don’t get it back, never mind’. I just couldn’t get through to her.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nDeputy Superintendent of Police Timothy Ng, officer-in-charge at the Anti-Scam Centre. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore On This Topic\n\n \n\nTough love to help scam victims who refuse to help themselves\n\n\n\n \n\nInteractive: How a love scammer’s 3-month ruse to swindle $165k got exposed\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIn another case, a divorcee in her 60s was so stubborn she refused to believe she had fallen for a love scam.\nAssistant Superintendent of Police Kenneth Lim, deputy officer-in-charge of the Community Policing Unit at Choa Chu Kang NPC, said that in 2023, she wanted to transfer $60,000 to her “bankrupt boyfriend” in Germany.\nSpeaking to her in person at a bank, ASP Lim warned her that she had fallen for a scam and would unlikely see the money again.\n“She told me to just let her send the money to him and said: ‘I feel happy doing so. Let my savings be gone.’ That was when I knew I could try all ways and means, but I could no longer rationalise with her,” he added.\nAfter speaking to her for at least an hour, ASP Lim accepted it was a losing battle.\nHe said: “We try our best, and sometimes I even tell these victims to talk to their family members and get their advice. But they are often so emotionally attached to people they have never met and nothing we say matters.” \nDSP Ng added that victims like these are why the Protection from Scams Bill is essential.\nHe said many victims who have been scammed were not in the right frame of mind to make the right choices. And if they do not have support from family or friends, there is nothing to protect them.\nHe added: “Some people may say it is a draconian law. But restriction orders will be issued only as a last resort. It is only when the threat of this person losing all their money is so real and imminent, and all avenues have been exhausted, that this will be used to save them from themselves.”\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nMore On This Topic\n\n \n\nCan you spot a scam? Why our minds are more susceptible than we think\n\n\n\n \n\nAt a glance: Duties of telcos and banks under Singapore’s scam liability framework\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHelplines and online resources\nAnti-Scam Hotline: 1800-722-6688\nInstitute of Mental Health’s Mental Health Helpline: 6389-2222\nscamalert.sg\n\nscamshield.org.sg","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.29.3","shortVersion":"4.29.3","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2485738901"}