Local banks and S’pore, HK police recover more than S$370k for 70-year-old man in foiled scam

The victim had called a “Microsoft Helpline” number and was told by scammers that his computer had been hacked and his bank account used for illegal activities. - ST FILE

SINGAPORE: The police and banks here, together with the Hong Kong police, foiled a “technical support” scam and recovered more than S$370,000 for a 70-year-old victim.

On April 18, DBS Bank detected suspicious transactions, with about $180,000 transferred from the victim’s bank account to an account in Hong Kong, the Singapore police said on May 1.

The DBS anti-scam team quickly blocked further transactions from the victim’s bank account to prevent more losses and notified the police’s Anti-Scam Centre (ASC).

The ASC notified its Hong Kong counterpart, the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC), about the bank transactions.

As the victim was uncontactable, police officers from Ang Mo Kio South Neighbourhood Police Centre went to the victim’s home, but he was not there.

The police managed to contact the victim’s family friend, who disclosed that $240,000 had gone missing from the victim’s UOB bank account that same day. It is unclear how the friend knew about his loss.

The police immediately worked with UOB to suspend the victim’s account and traced the funds to a second bank account in Hong Kong. Working together, the ASC and the ADCC successfully recovered the full amount for the victim from the bank account in Hong Kong.

The police later found out that the victim was surfing the internet on his computer when a pop-up notification appeared.

He was unable to close the notification and proceeded to call the “Microsoft Helpline” number displayed on the pop-up.

The victim was informed over the phone that his computer had been “hacked” and his bank accounts were used for illegal activities. He was then redirected to an “SPF cybercrime unit officer” who alleged the same.

He was instructed by the scammer to divulge his bank account credentials, which included his user IDs and passwords, to facilitate the “investigation”.

“This allowed the scammers to take control of the victim’s bank accounts, leading to monies being transferred out,” the police added.

There were 46,563 scam cases reported in 2023, the highest number since the police started tracking such cases in 2016, and 46.8 per cent higher than the 31,728 cases in 2022.

In total, scam victims in Singapore lost $651.8 million in 2023.

The police advised those who suspect that they might have fallen prey to a scam to turn off their computers immediately to limit any further activities that scammers can perform, and uninstall any software that they have installed on the instruction of scammers.

They should also perform full antivirus scans on their computers and delete any malware detected, report the incident to their banks to halt further activities relating to their bank accounts, change their internet banking credentials and remove any unauthorised payees who may have been added to their bank accounts.

They should also report the incident to the police.

The police advised the public to apply the ACT steps to fight scams, namely: Add security features, Check for signs of a scam, and Tell the authorities and others about scams.

For more information on scams, visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline on 1800-722-6688.

To report scam-related information, call the police hotline on 1800-255-0000 or submit details online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness with the assurance of confidentiality. - The Straits Times/ANN