In November, following the instructions of the second scammer, the woman sold her unit trust investments that she held with Standard Chartered Bank, amounting to more than S$260,000.
The money was to be transferred to a third-party bank account provided by the scammer, purportedly to assist in investigations.
“The transaction was detected by a Standard Chartered Bank relationship manager, who noticed the victim’s unusual banking behaviour and outgoing transfers to a suspected mule’s bank account,” said the police.
He promptly escalated the case to the Standard Chartered Bank anti-fraud team, who contacted the Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) for intervention.
The authorities worked with the bank’s anti-fraud team to trace the flow of the funds, which led to them identifying and freezing all the scammer-controlled accounts.
This prevented the loss of over S$260,000, said SPF.
The police added that ASC officers also promptly followed up with the victim to alert her of the scheme.