FINDING OUT ABOUT THE SCAM
For the two weeks following the scam call, his mother appeared completely normal. Despite sharing the joint account from which she had withdrawn large sums from, Mr Ho was not alerted to any movement of the money, he said.
When he finally saw the withdrawals and checked with his mother, she said she authorised the transaction but refused to share the circumstances, saying she was busy.
When he checked with her again on whether she had been scammed, she was reluctant to reveal details, so Mr Ho got suspicious. He eventually took her to the police station.
“I could see that she was very confused and she was made to believe that the story (that the scammers told her) was true,” he said, adding that the perpetrators were successful in psychologically manipulating her.
Mr Ho said that he was left with some questions following the encounter.
He wanted to know why he was not notified of the first withdrawal of S$70,000 – an unusual amount, despite being a joint account holder.
Another issue he had was the method the bank teller used to ascertain if his mother had been scammed, he said.
“The bank teller, actually asked my mum: ‘Auntie, are you being scammed?’” Mr Ho recounted.
“Nobody in the right mind would actually say ‘yes, I’m being scammed. Please help me’,” he said, adding that the scammers would have already convinced the victims by that point that they are not being cheated.
Since the incident, Mr Ho has set the withdrawal limit for the account to S$500.
“There’s probably nothing I could have done, but I would have educated her differently,” he said.
WHO IS TO BLAME?
Mr Ho’s mother is not alone – there were nearly 23,000 scam cases in the first six months of this year, with increasing sophistication from the fraudsters.