Woman scammed of S$1.2 million believed she was helping the police

SINGAPORE: It started with them telling her she was suspected of money laundering. 

For over a month, "Jane", a woman in her 50s, then had to cooperate with "police officers" to prove her innocence.

They got her to create a bank account and transfer money into it; and even physically hand over cash as part of the "investigation". 

She ended up losing S$1.2 million (US$900,000) - money she'd been saving to pay off a new house.

Speaking to reporters on Friday (Mar 14) on condition of anonymity, Jane, who works in finance, recounted how she was duped last year in what can now be categorised as a government officials impersonation scam.

Such cases were among the top scam types with the highest amounts lost last year - at least S$151.3 million, according to statistics released by the police in February. 

HOW IT BEGAN

Jane was having breakfast on the morning of Dec 11 when a woman called, claiming to be from the Singapore Police Force's Anti-Scam Centre (ASC).

The woman, who identified herself as "Jenny Koo", said Jane's National Registration Identity Card or NRIC had been used to register a SIM card to send out spam messages. 

Confused, Jane asked for the address the SIM card was registered under. It wasn't hers.

Jenny then suggested Jane lodge a police report, and redirected the call to the "police investigation team".

The call was picked up by a second scammer, who introduced himself as "Inspector Yang". During the call, he appeared to be also in conversation with someone else, seemingly through a walkie-talkie. This, to Jane, made the call seem legitimate.

After conducting "checks", Yang told her a UOB branch manager by the name of "Serena Chilyn" had used Jane's identity to open an account for money laundering, and that Jane had taken 10 per cent in commissions.

He then said that to prove her innocence, Jane would have to update him on her movements four times a day over WhatsApp, and provide bank statements.

At this point, Jane did have her suspicions.

She asked him to prove he was a cop. Yang showed her a "police pass".

She also asked Yang why she received no notification from UOB - where she had a genuine account - if her ID was used to open another.

Yang said that Serena, being a branch manager, had a way to "hide" the bank account. 

Jane told reporters she still had her doubts on that first day. It was only after "a lot of conversation" with Yang over subsequent days, with him checking on her schedule, that slowly convinced her he was truly investigating the case.

The fake inspector then gave her a letter which said she could be detained for 60 days for money laundering. He also warned her against tipping off or sharing information about this with third parties.

And Jane did as she was told. During this time, she was also dealing with the death of a family member, on top of feeling under the weather and being overloaded with work.

"I (was) not in the state of mind to decide anything ... So like, whatever you want, I just give it to you … You don't come and disturb me."

"HE MADE ME BELIEVE"

Yang's next step was to redirect Jane to his "senior officer" to apply for a "priority financial inspection".

This has been revealed as a common method used by scammers to get victims to transfer money to a given account.

Wanting to avoid getting detained, Jane followed Yang's instructions. She withdrew S$500,000 from her savings and put it in a new account opened at a Chinese bank.

The "senior officer", who went by "Inspector Chong", told her they needed her help to trap banking insiders like Serena.

"He made me believe … that I'm helping the police."

Over Dec 18 and Dec 19, Jane made nine bank transfers from the Chinese bank account to the scammers, each time just under S$20,000.

The scammers told her these were "dummy" payments to draw Serena out, and that her actual funds would not be affected.

At this stage, the real ASC was alerted.

But Chong was already one step ahead, having warned her the ASC would call to inform her about a potential scam. He instructed Jane to tell the ASC officers that she knew what she was doing; and that she didn't have to tell them the truth as she was already helping the "police". 

When the real ASC called - and repeated what Chong said they would - that was all the convincing Jane needed.

"I don't know why they said exactly what he said. (It) made me believe what he said."

A total of about S$180,000 had been transferred to the scammers.

They next asked her to hand over the remaining S$320,000 in cash and in person instead.

During the meetup, Chong was on the line with Jane, pointing out who would be picking up the cash from her. The man she met wore a T-shirt and jeans and looked like an "ah beng", said Jane.

There were three more meetups where she had to hand over - sometimes to a different man - even more cash for "investigation".

Within a span of just over a month, she ended up giving away S$1.2 million to the scammers. 

SCAMMERS "ARE LIKE HUNTERS"

Even after conning her of more than a million dollars, the scammers remained in contact with Jane, telling her to continue updating them four times a day.

In between her updates, Jane would ask about her money, saying she needed it to pay off a loan for a new house.

Initial reassurances dried up and the scammers stopped replying altogether after Jan 24.

Yet Jane continued to send updates and it was only on Feb 4 - after 10 days of radio silence -that it dawned on her she could have been scammed.

Two days later, she lodged a police report.

Jane said she cried over her "stupidity", and finally told everything to her children and husband.

Her three sons comforted her and offered to pay for the renovation of her new house.

"They said 'No matter what happens, you still have us. Money, we still can earn back. But the most important thing is you're still safe'," said Jane.

Other family members, including her sisters, remain in the dark.

Jane said her advice would be to not let scammers gain control over one's emotions. She likened them to "evil" psychiatrists, studying a victim and their character for ways to "attack" like "hunters".

In Singapore, a new law was passed earlier this year giving the police powers to order banks to restrict transactions of potential scam victims. Jane believes this would have helped victims like herself.

She has since made peace with her loss, choosing to think of it as a "donation to charity".

"I believe in karma," she added. "So I just let go."