Just a few days ago, local news reported that a online love scam victim was arrested for her suspected involvement in using forged cashier’s orders worth more than $600,000 in total.
The victim, a 51-year-old woman had received the forged cashier’s orders from an online friend through the postal service, after she agreed to deposit them into her bank account. Prior to this, the victim had purportedly transferred about $80,000 to the friend since 2018, after the latter claimed that he was facing financial difficulties.
According to the police, anyone found guilty of supporting a conspiracy to forge a valuable security can be fined and jailed for up to 15 years.
In Singapore, both authorities and financial institutions have increased their efforts in combating online scammers. In Jun 2019, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) set up a new Anti-Scam Centre within the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), with the objective of disrupting scammer’s operations and mitigate the victim’s losses.
On the other hand, local banks have dedicated fraud detection units to detect anomalies in banking transactions, and also have front-line staff trained to keep a keen eye on suspicious transactions.
Late last year, a 40-year-old customer came to OCBC’s Bedok branch to make a $20,000 funds transfer to another account for “tax payments”. The branch staff who became suspicious, decided to probe the customer for more information. It was later gathered from the customer that he had intended to transfer the money to a female acquaintance he had met online, who was now stuck at customs for carrying huge amounts of cash and needed to pay tax. The branch staff dissuaded the customer from making the transfer, and accompanied him to make a police report.
Readers should be especially careful when dealing with strangers they meet online, and avoid receiving, transferring money to or on behalf of such strangers. Do not get yourself tangled in a messy situation in a moment of folly.
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