Bank's anti-scam team prevents victim from losing over $1 million

He was told over the phone by someone claiming to be a court official that he was involved in illegal money-laundering activities, and while John (not his real name) felt he had done nothing wrong, fear slowly set in, so much so that he gave up his bank account details.

Using his banking credentials, the scammers transferred $93,000 out of his account.

John, who is married with two children in their 20s, had fallen victim to a government official impersonation scam.

Recalling the incident in June, John said last Friday: "The 'court official' first accused me of money-laundering activities... When I told him I had no knowledge of such activities, he transferred me to a 'police officer' who said he needed my information."

Hoping to resolve the matter quickly, John, who has lived in Singapore for 16 years, took a photo of his Employment Pass card and sent it to the scammer.

"He then sent me an official-looking court document for the offences I'd been accused of and said the police would be at my home that evening to arrest me."

John said the scammers transferred him to different authority figures, including a senior police inspector and a financial auditor who claimed to be from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

He eventually handed over his DBS banking credentials to the scammers for inspection.

"I was told not to speak to anyone about this... Otherwise it would jeopardise the legitimacy of the financial review," said John.

The scammers used his banking information to transfer $93,000 from his account and attempted a second transfer of $97,800.

Ms Elaine Tan, a member of the DBS anti-scam team, said the bank's fraud surveillance systems flagged the second transaction as suspicious. She alerted the Anti-Scam Centre.

Assistant Superintendent of Police Simon Lam, a senior investigation officer at the Anti-Scam Centre, said subsequent transfers of around $1 million were in the process of being transferred from John's account at the time. He contacted John and took two hours to convince him he had been scammed.

Subsequent transfer attempts by the scammers were halted and the first transfer of $93,000 was also recovered.