Singapore Police Force (SPF) awards vigilant staff from Samlit Moneychanger Pte Ltd for their assistance and timely interception in foiling two separate cases of scam related remittance.
In an award ceremony held earlier today (July 28) at the Police Cantonment Complex, Mr Malik Sameer, Ms Li Chunyan and Ms Novianti Goh from Samlit Moneychanger Pte Ltd were awarded Public Spiritedness Awards by Central Division for their assistance and timely interception in foiling two separate cases of scam related remittance.
In the first case reported on 7 July 2016 at about 3.05pm, SPF was alerted by Mr Malik Sameer, a staff from Samlit Moneychanger Pte Ltd to a suspected case of cheating.
Upon the receipt of the report, officers from Central Division responded to the case and ascertained that the 59-year-old victim, had been scammed into remitting S$25,000 to an overseas account.
Investigations revealed that on 2 July 2016, the victim had received a phone call claiming that she had a parcel with 28 credit cards under her name at Changi Airport DHL. The victim was threatened with imprisonment if she did not cooperate with the caller. On the pretext of closing the case for the victim, she was directed to make withdrawals from the bank before proceeding to the remittance company.
At the remittance company, Li Chunyan, a staff attending to the victim suspected something was amiss and began to probe on the purpose of the remittance. The victim was unable to provide a satisfactory reason and was observed to be on the phone, as if she was receiving instructions from someone.
Suspecting that the she might be a victim of scam, Ms Li told the victim to wait while she went to her office to make a call to the Commercial Affairs Department. However after the call, the victim was nowhere to be seen.
Through extensive efforts by officers from Central Division and Commercial Affairs Department, the identity of the victim was established and she was promptly contacted. Due to the timely intervention, the money was fully recovered and returned to the victim.
A day following the first case, the same remittance company further intercepted a second case of suspected scam related remittance.
On 8 July 2016 at about 12.30pm, the Police were alerted to a suspected case of cheating by Mr Malik Sameer.
Upon the receipt of the report, officers from Central Division and Commercial Affairs Department responded to the case and ascertained that a 69-year-old victim had been scammed into remitting $50,000 to an overseas account.
Investigations revealed that on 4 July 2016, the victim had received a phone call claiming that she had a parcel containing illegal items sent under her name via DHL to Shanghai. She was threatened with imprisonment if she did not comply with his instructions. The victim was then told to remit $50,000 to a specific bank account in China if she wanted the authority to expedite the investigations.
At the remittance company, one of the staff, Ms Novianti Goh who was attending to the victim, suspected something amiss when the victim could not provide reasonable answers to general queries and kept changing her versions. The victim was also observed to be speaking to someone on her phone throughout the whole process and appeared to be acting under instructions, adding further to her suspicions.
As such, Mr Malik Sameer called the Police quickly while Ms Novianti Goh continued to probe further. Through the swift responses of officers from Central Division and Commercial Affairs Department, they spoke to the victim who halted the transaction, leading to the full recovery of $50,000 belonging to the victim.
SPF advises members of public to take precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
- Ignore the calls.
- Ignore instruction to remit or transfer money.
- Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone.
- Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act.
- If you have information related to such crime or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or dial 999 for urgent Police assistance.
Members of Public are advised to share these crime prevention measures with family and friends to prevent them from being the next victim of scam.
