About 430 of the police reports made were against Samlit Moneychanger.
Mr Sam Malik of Samlit Moneychanger told CNA that the company observed an uptick in cases in October, but cannot pinpoint exactly when the accounts were frozen.
Referring to the MAS decision to suspend non-bank and non-card transfers, he said: “We strongly believe the move will be welcomed by customers and our industry peers in the current situation.”
“SAFETY FIRST”
Mr Li, the sushi chef, now sends money to China using DBS instead of choosing overseas third-party agents through remittance companies.
“The money reaches my family in a few minutes, and it’s safe. The exchange rate isn’t as good, but safety first,” he said. “I don’t need to worry about my account being frozen.”
“There are 600, 700 of us waiting for good news. I hope we can be compensated quickly and our families will be able to use the money. That’s what we want,” he added.
While speaking to reporters, Mr Li paused to tell another Chinese national, construction worker Xing Yu Zhu, that he should also use official banking channels.
Mr Xing said he had not decided whether to use a bank or a different remittance company and said he feels that whatever he chooses, there will still be a risk of running into trouble.
He has been a customer of Samlit Moneychanger for around 10 years and his account in China was frozen a few months ago.
He showed CNA messages on WeChat that detailed how his money was sent over to China in three batches.
The first two were unaffected, but the last tranche of money – around 12,000 yuan (S$2,200) – was frozen. Mr Xing said he believes he is a victim of a scam because his family was asked to pay a ransom of 500,000 Chinese yuan (S$94,000) for the account to be unfrozen.
MAS said on Monday that it is unclear why these funds had been frozen.
Mr Xing chose Samlit because it offered a better exchange rate.
“The safer ones have a bad exchange rate,” he said. “It could be a few hundred dollars’ difference.”
He said he drops by Samlit nearly every week to ask for updates.
“I’m thinking of going back to China to settle this issue,” he said. “It doesn’t feel good. I earned my money honestly, but it’s frozen in an account.”
Samlit’s Mr Malik said the company assesses documents provided by their customers who face issues. It then determines if the customer suffered “financial inconvenience” due to the transaction processed by the company and looks for a resolution based on Singapore’s laws.
SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS
Two other remittance companies named by MAS and the police were involved in a meeting on Monday evening with 39 people whose accounts were frozen.
Mr Jed Huang, chief executive officer of Zhongguo Remittance, said the meeting went well and affected customers had the chance to ask questions.
“The central part of it is to assist the customers in getting the relevant documentation and to consider how we can help the customer to get their accounts unfrozen. All of them, their funds are from legitimate sources,” he said.