Attracted by a healthy meal package that was advertised online, a 59-year-old woman in Singapore was convinced by the "vendor" to download an app to place her order.

Instead of getting her purchase, however, the woman lost more than S$18,000, which was transferred out of her bank accounts within 20 minutes.

Enticed by the healthy meal promotion

The victim, Deng (transliterated from Mandarin), told Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min) that on July 25, she came across an advertisement on Facebook for a healthy meal service named "Healthy Box".

It offered a meal delivery service, comprising three "nutritious, affordable and delicious" dishes and one soup per meal. And as part of an early bird promotion, customers could sign up for a five-day trial for S$58, which was inclusive of delivery charges.

Enticed by the attractive deal, Deng contacted the vendor on Facebook to indicate her interest, and provided her phone number.

Downloaded an app to place her order

The next day, when Deng was at work, she received a call from a person who claimed to be from the food delivery service.

She was asked for details such as her address and dietary preferences.

Deng admitted that because the caller spoke with a local accent and sounded professional, her suspicions were not raised.

Afterwards, the person contacted her on WhatsApp and told her to download an app called "Grain" to place her order.

According to Deng, the app's interface was akin to that of an electronic menu, and allowed customers to choose between different options for their meals.

Asked to make S$10 PayNow deposit to invalid number

Deng was then asked to make a deposit of S$10 to the "vendor" via PayNow, but soon found that the number provided was invalid.

"The person said they would handle it, and continued to ask me other questions. But all of a sudden, the line was cut off, and when I called back, no one picked up," she shared with Shin Min.

After calling the number multiple times but to no avail, Deng realised something was amiss.

Bank accounts wiped out, lost more than S$18,000

She uninstalled the app and related the incident to her colleagues, who contacted her bank on her behalf and requested to freeze her bank accounts.

However, by this juncture, it was too late.

Deng soon received an email from the bank notifying her that her fund transfer limit had been raised from S$1,000 to S$25,000.

She also found that all the money in her four bank accounts, amounting to more than S$18,000, had been spirited away.

She lodged a police report immediately.

In response to Mothership's queries, the police confirmed that a report was lodged and investigations are ongoing.

When interviewed by Shin Min, her husband said that Deng was usually astute in these matters, but in this case the scammers had used highly sophisticated tactics that were difficult to defend against.

Phone had been hacked

After the incident, Deng suspected her mobile phone had been remotely controlled by scammers.

After downloading the app, she saw some notifications pop up on her phone, along with "Accept" and "Reject" options.

But while she tried selecting the "Reject" option multiple times, her phone did not seem to register the input.

She later tried to check her chat history with the scammer, but found out that her phone had been reset, and she was unable to access those chat logs.

When Mothership checked the "Healthy Box" Facebook page on July 28, it was still running, with new advertisements being launched on the page.

However, a number of users in the comments have put up warnings that the page was run by scammers.

Some Facebook users said they had also fallen victim to a similar scam.

Top image from Shin Min Daily News / Facebook.