On Nov 27, Mr Singh received not eggs but a call from a UOB customer service officer, asking about a hefty credit card transaction which Mr Singh “vehemently denied”.
He checked his bank accounts with both UOB and DBS and found, to his horror, that all of his funds had been depleted.
“When (I saw) zero, zero, zero I think I went into a state of shock. Like I became a zombie. I didn’t know what to do,” said Mr Singh.
“I immediately contacted my wife … and said that we have been scammed,” Mr Singh recalled. “We were trembling when we were at the police station and my wife broke down and she still breaks down.”
The Singapore Police Force confirmed to CNA that a report was lodged and that investigations are ongoing.
The Singhs have also reached out to the banks involved.
His UOB account had logged a series of outgoing S$15,000 transactions, while nearly S$30,000 was siphoned from his DBS one.
Mr Singh said he did not receive any notifications, alerts or one-time passwords to permit the transactions – even though he usually received these for transactions involving much smaller amounts.
He has several questions, including why the scammers were able to access his credit card details – which he did not disclose – as well as other bank accounts.
“The banks should take responsibility, at least partial responsibility,” Mr Singh added. “I’m not the one who went down and withdrew the money and gave it to the scammer … I wasn’t even aware this thing was happening.”
He said he had trusted the banks to safeguard his money, and that they should have recognised and stopped the fraudulent transactions.