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An 80-year-old Singaporean lady was swindled of S$3.62 million in Oct. 2019 in a China officials impersonation scam.

China officials impersonation scams typically involve scammers pretending to be officers from government organisations, informing victims of the following:

• A mobile number registered in their name was involved in a crime
• A parcel under their name containing illegal goods was detained
• There was a pending case in court against them; and/or
• They had committed a criminal offence and were required to assist in investigations

In this case, the 80-year-old lady was tricked into believing that she was implicated in illegal money-laundering activities.

The scammer also claimed that the Singap­ore Police Force (SPF) were corr­upted and convinced the lady not to rev­eal any information to them or others.

Withdrew close to S$2.3 million in one week

Four months ago, a local bank informed the SPF that an 80-year-old customer recently withdrew S$800,000 in cash from her bank account.

The bank mentioned that the woman, Goh, was due for another appointment with them in a few days' time to withdraw another S$800,000 in cash, and told SPF that no reason was given by Goh for the purpose of this large withdrawal.

At the time when SPF received the information, they thought that it was unusual for Goh to be doing such a large withdrawal of cash.

After doing some background checks on her, they found out from various banks that Goh withdrew close to S$2.3 million over the last week or so.

It was then that SPF realised that needed to follow up with this case and sent resources from Marine Parade Neighbourhood Police Centre (NPC) to visit Goh.

A young lover?

When officers from Marine Parade NPC tried to engage Goh, she only told them that she had handed the money to "someone".

According to Teng Chin Hock, the officer-in-charge of the Anti-Scam Centre Commercial Affairs Department, Goh claimed that if the French president could have an older wife, she could have a younger lover too.

Initially, the police thought that Goh was a victim of a love scam, as she seemed so passionate about giving money to her "lover".

However, things didn't add up.

After all, why would an 80-year-old lady suddenly want to find a young lover?

According to Goh's daughter, she also did not have any social media accounts.

Accused of money laundering

The police therefore deduced that it was impossible that she had been groomed by love scammers and suspected that Goh was a victim of a China officials impersonation scam.

According to Teng, Goh received a phone ca­ll from an unknown male caller who claim­ed to be from Interp­ol Police sometime in mid-Octo­ber 2019.

Goh was told that she was implicated for money la­undering by someone they ar­rested.

To prove her innocence, Goh was instructed to hand over the money in her bank account for investigations, as the money might be co­unterfeit notes or criminal proceeds.

The scammer also alleg­ed that the SPF were corr­upted and not to rev­eal anything to them or others.

Knowing this information, the police brought down uniformed officers to the victim's house to try to convince her that she had been scammed.

However, Goh was evasive and refused to engage with them.

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Victim's daughter afraid to inform her

As the SPF knew that Goh had a daughter living with her in the same house, they contacted her daughter instead.

However, Goh's daughter appeared too scared to inform her mother.

The police then met up with the daughter at another location and told her that her mother had likely fallen prey to a scam.

However, the daughter remained fearful of being scolded and did not want to confront her mother.

In the end, Goh's daughter got her brother to speak with their elderly mother at night.

When the police once again called Goh and visited her at her house, she became extremely angry and asked the police officers what right they had to question her.

The police officers replied that she had been sending large sums of money overseas and suspected that she could be involved in money laundering.

Refused to believe police even after they showed police passes

Soon after, police in Taiwan informed SPF that they had arrested a runner who might be linked to Goh's case.

According to Taiwanese police, the runner had collected S$700,000 in cash near Marine Parade.

Police officers thought that Goh would be convinced after seeing the runner's photos.

However, Goh still refused to accede to the police officer's requests.

Left with little option, the police then decided to inform Goh's husband about the scam, who replied that it was impossible that his wife would be so stupid.

The police continued to wait outside Goh's house even when her maid told them that she was not at home.

It was only later when Goh's daughter came back that the police followed her into the house.

Even after the police officers showed Goh their police passes, photographs of the Taiwanese runner, and called Bedok Division's police officers to come down to her house to patrol the area, the victim still refused to divulge any information.

Psychologist worked with family and son to convince victim

A breakthrough only happened when information that Goh was going to release the money was revealed to the police, who conducted an operation where three runners were arrested by the Syndicate Fraud Branch.

Even when Goh was brought to the police station afterwards, she still did not quite believe that the people she had been speaking to were actual police officers.

It was only when a principal psychologist was engaged in co-operation with Goh's family that the victim's son, who had been residing overseas, flew back to convince her that she had been scammed.

In total, SPF en­gaged Goh from mid-O­ct. till Dec­. 2019 before four suspects were arrested in an oper­ation.

China Officials Impersonation Scams

According to the SPF, scams made up 27 per cent of Singapore's overall crime statistics in 2019.

In 2019, 455 cases of China Officials Impersonation Scams were also reported, with a total of S$21.1 million cheated.

As most scam syndicates are based overseas and there is little to no chance of recovering money that has been transferred electronically, Singaporeans should exercise caution and remain alert in the prevention of scams.

Family members, especially, play crucial roles in observing unusual behaviours and intervening quickly to stop their loved ones from falling prey to scammers.

Top image by Jeremy Wong on Unsplash