A 48-year-old housewife who thought she was placing an order for homemade Hakka thunder tea rice (lei cha) through a Facebook promotion ended up losing S$37,000 of her life savings when she clicked on a WhatsApp link the "seller" provided for her to "fill in her address for delivery".

She found her bank account cleaned out the next day, with only S$0.06 left.

'Buy two get one free' promotion on Facebook

The woman, surnamed Luo (transliterated from Mandarin), told Shin Min Daily News (Shin Min) that she came across a Facebook advertisement for homemade lei cha on Sep. 2, 2023.

The advertisement listed each lei cha set at S$7.90 with a "buy two get one free" promotion.

She decided to purchase three sets to share with her family.

Clicked WhatsApp link, another app downloaded automatically

She said she saw the advertisement came with a WhatsApp link, which she clicked to contact the seller.

The seller sent her a link over WhatsApp,  claiming it was for her to fill in her delivery address.

Luo said that as the seller also explained to her they accept cash on delivery, she thought it was reasonable for her to provide her address.

When she clicked on the link, an app named "Grab and Go" was automatically downloaded onto her phone.

Unable to access phone, which started heating up

The next afternoon, Luo noticed her phone felt hot to the touch and no matter what she buttons she pressed she could only access the home screen.

However, she said she only suspected something was wrong when she received a call from her bank at around 4pm, asking if she had made a transaction of S$6,000 from her account.

Asked for accounts to be frozen, but still wiped out

Luo told the bank she did not make the transaction and requested that her bank account be frozen immediately.

However, the bank came back with more bad news at 6pm.

This time, Luo was told that S$37,466 had been transferred out of her account through three transactions.

Luo lodged a police report and went to the bank the next day, confirming that her account had been practically wiped out, with only S$0.06 remaining.

Lost their life savings

Luo also told Shin Min that the money was her and her husband's life savings.

It was meant for their retirement.

She said her son also needed S$6,000 for his school fees in the same month.

Luo resorted to borrowing money from friends and relatives.

"How are we going to survive? Keep borrowing money? We definitely have to start all over, but how long will it take?" she said. "We spent our whole lives to save that much money."

Luo said she didn't understand why she already told the bank to freeze her account but the transactions still went through.

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

Top image from Facebook / Shin Min Daily News