Elderly woman avoids losing S$260,000 to scammers after StanChart employee intervenes
A Standard Chartered Bank relationship manager noticed the unusual banking behaviour and escalated the matter.
A Standard Chartered Bank logo is displayed on a building in Singapore. (Photo: AFP/Roslan Rahman)
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SINGAPORE: An elderly woman narrowly avoided losing more than S$260,000 (US$194,200) to scammers, thanks to a quick-thinking Standard Chartered Bank employee.
In a press release on Friday (Dec 8), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said that the 79-year-old woman received an unsolicited call from a scammer impersonating a bank officer in September this year.
The scammer alleged that her account had been frozen for investigation, before transferring the woman over to a second person who impersonated a police official.
The woman was then instructed to report her whereabouts four times a day and not to divulge details about the investigation.
In November, following the instructions of the second scammer, the woman sold her unit trust investments that she held with Standard Chartered Bank, amounting to more than S$260,000.
The money was to be transferred to a third-party bank account provided by the scammer, purportedly to assist in investigations.
"The transaction was detected by a Standard Chartered Bank relationship manager, who noticed the victim’s unusual banking behaviour and outgoing transfers to a suspected mule’s bank account," said the police.
He promptly escalated the case to the Standard Chartered Bank anti-fraud team, who contacted the Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) for intervention.
The authorities worked with the bank's anti-fraud team to trace the flow of the funds, which led to them identifying and freezing all the scammer-controlled accounts.
This prevented the loss of over S$260,000, said SPF.
The police added that ASC officers also promptly followed up with the victim to alert her of the scheme.
"The ASC collaborates closely with the financial institutions and stakeholders to combat scams," said the police.
"To protect its customers from fraud and scams, among other measures taken, Standard Chartered Bank’s anti-fraud team regularly conducts training for frontline teams to step up vigilance in fraud detection and prevention measures."
The authorities said that the "rigorous emphasis on anti-scam training" and close collaboration with the ASC led to the timely intervention.
Government official impersonation scams
The police outlined the characteristics of a typical government official impersonation scam, where scammers impersonate officers from government organisations and accuse victims of their involvement in criminal or money laundering activities overseas.
First, a potential victim will receive unsolicited calls from a scammer impersonating a bank officer. They would allege that the victims have outstanding credit card charges on their cards that are linked to criminal or money laundering activities.
The call would then be transferred to another scammer posing as a government official and informing victims that they were under investigation for criminal or money laundering activities.
The second scammer could also attempt to move the conversation to a messaging application, such as WhatsApp or Telegram.
Victims could then be directed to do any of the following:
- Relinquish bank account details
- Transfer money to a third-party bank account, purportedly to assist in investigations
- Open new bank accounts
- Meet unknown subjects to hand over, collect or sign fake documents
- Report their whereabouts and told not to divulge details about the investigation
