Lost S$20,000 Due To Phone Scam- Good Deed Became Sheep For Slaughter.

This incident happened last week which left me totally flabbergasted. I have a close colleague (let's call him "Mr Bro") at work who called me to warn me to be careful if I received any phone call claiming to be our colleague at our workplace who needs to borrow money for emergency. Mr Bro further told me that he fell for this scam and was lodging a police report at police station for a whopping loss of S$20,000. I was shocked and perplexed as Mr Bro was extremely street smart and an experienced Senior Manager who had dealt with many challenging situations in the commercial sector.

1. What exactly happened?

Well, this was what Mr Bro recounted on that fateful day:

1.1 Mr Bro received a call from our colleague (let's call him "Sam") based at another work site. Mr Bro and Sam knows each other very well and often meet up for drinks and meals outside work. 

1.2 The voice in the phone sounded exactly like Sam as per asserted by Mr Bro, hence he did not suspect anything amiss despite a weird number flashing on his caller ID. Sam went on to ask Mr Bro for a bridging loan of S$20K as he was starting a F&B business in Malaysia and need the money urgently to complete the deal. Sam further told Mr Bro that he is just waiting for his own money from liquidation of his own investments to come in by the next day and he will return the S$20K to Mr Bro by "tomorrow".

1.3 Apparently, Sam knows a lot of details about our company and even mentioned the exact projects that we are all working on at the moment and the peak period that all of us are going through which clouded Mr Bro's judgement. What sealed the transfer of money was this by Sam to Mr Bro: "兄弟，我们认识了这么多年，我几时有这样低声下气求过你帮忙地?" The English translation goes like this: "Brother, we have known each other for so many years, when did I ever humbly beg you for help?" 

Mr Bro who values utmost loyalty to his friends and brotherly love thus caved in and transferred the S$20K to the local bank account number furnished by Sam.

 

The scam finally unraveled the next day when Mr Bro called up Sam directly to enquire on whether he has received his funds to return back the bridging loan. The real Sam was utterly clueless when Mr Bro called him to return the money he had "borrowed" the day before. The real Sam also received a lot of calls at the time whereby Mr Bro and the fake scammer were on the phone probably to prevent Mr Bro from calling him. This was also the juncture whereby Mr Bro realised poignantly that he had fell for the scammer's plot. 

2. Can you recover your money upon noticing the scam?

Well, this appears to be tough. Even though the bank account number belongs to one of our local bank, the bank officer will tell you that they are powerless to do anything and cannot freeze the bank account whereby your money is being transferred to. The advice given was for you to quickly lodge a police report. Mr Bro has since made a provision of the full S$20K as he has doubts on whether he will ever see his money again.

Parting thoughts

It is unfortunate that an act of a Good Samaritan ends up in financial losses for Mr Bro. Scams seems to be rampant these days. I got another colleague who lost S$8K to a scammer (masquerading as a property agent) who disappeared after collecting rental deposits from her for rental flat. Chances of recovery are low as once the money went into the other party's designated account, the scammers will quickly transfer it to another overseas bank account or withdraw it. 

The only good thing that resulted from the above scam is that the real Sam is very touched that Mr Bro actually value him a lot as a "brother" and is willing to loan S$20K in times of crisis to him. I am sure that their brotherly love deepens in the aftermath of this incident.