The victim went to a Great Eastern office in Jurong East on Dec 18 to liquidate her insurance policies and deposit the surrender value monies into her OCBC account.
When questioned by a Great Eastern customer service officer who found the victim’s account for the surrender suspicious, the woman claimed that the money was for a house purchase and renovation fees but was unable to provide more details when probed further.
“Despite having to make a loss for the early surrender of her four insurance policies, the victim insisted on proceeding with the surrender, further raising the suspicion of the Great Eastern customer service officer,” said the police.
He promptly escalated the case to OCBC, which contacted the Anti-Scam Centre (ASC) for intervention.
The authorities worked with OCBC to prevent the victim from making further transactions, while ASC officers met the victim at her home and convinced her that she had fallen for a scam. They also acted on the UOB account under the control of the second scammer.
“The alertness of the Great Eastern customer service officer, and the timely intervention by OCBC staff and ASC officers prevented the victim from potentially losing over S$250,000,” said police.
“OCBC is committed to working closely with the Police to fight scams and protect customers’ funds,” said the bank’s anti-fraud team chief Beaver Chua.