S’porean woman, in her 40s, gets scammed, passes S$250,000 cash to money mule in park, police get it back

A Singaporean woman, in her 40s, handed over S$250,000 in cash to scammers.

The amount was her life savings.

This was after she was convinced by the scammers that she was one of 400 suspects involved in a money laundering investigation in China.

Speaking to media, she explained how she fell for the ruse and why she let her guard down, despite hearing about scam calls all the time.

Very elaborate scam

The scam initially began as a overseas phone call in April 2025 to Sabrina Tan (not her real name) from a company, which claimed to be AirChina.

The person over the line said Tan had booked tickets a few times, but cancelled them.

Tan, married with a child, said she did not and the other party insisted that she did.

The fake AirChina employee even claimed that an insurance company called the airline regarding Tan’s tickets.

Later, the scammer led Tan, who is a professional in the manufacturing industry, to believe that someone was using her identity to make the purchases and told her to lodge a police report.

Tan suggested that the airline make a report for her on her behalf since she does not live in China.

Tan said this was when she slowly fell for the ruse as it was so elaborate.

She felt like she had to cooperate with instructions, or she would get into trouble.

Forwarded call to "police"

The person over the line said it was not their practice to do so and that he would have to reach out to his supervisor instead, even giving Tan an employee ID to convince her that this was not a scam.

The scammer then forwarded her call to a fake police station where Tan supposedly could hear conversations accompanied by walkie talkie noises.

Afterwards, the scammer got back to Tan with a shocking claim – she was a suspect in a money laundering investigation.

"He told me that there were 400 suspects globally and they have detained 200 people and I am one of the 200 they are searching for, but they said that since I reached out to them voluntarily, they would view my case differently,” said Tan.

Ridiculous claims and demands

The call marked the start of close to three months of turmoil: Tan was expected to call the scammer every day to report her location, what she was doing, and to send him a picture of herself.

She was also reminded not to tell anyone what was going on as it could “jeopardise the investigation”.

“I even set an alarm every few hours to remember to call him because I was being treated as a suspect now, not even an ordinary person,” said Tan.

When she was not working, she had to call the scammer every few hours.

During work days, she was given leeway to report to the scammer during her lunch break and after work.

Made to feel scammer was on her side

Tan said she felt the scammer was trying to come across as supportive, even claiming he was breaking the rules for her in the investigation when in reality, Tan later realised, he was just trying to control her.

She even had to meet a fake associate in person to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

This did not make her feel suspicious as she was made to feel like she could not not divulge any information to others.

She did not share her situation with any of her family members, including her husband.

As she was subjected to such continuous minute control with no outlet to inform others, it wore her out.

She could not think clearly

S$250,000 in cash or deportation to China

Things took a turn for the worse when the scammer suddenly told Tan that the person faking Tan’s identity had committed suicide and everyone being investigated would be "deported" to China with immediate effect.

The scammer claimed that someone would go to Tan’s house, handcuff her and investigate her partner.

Her child could possibly be sent to an orphanage.

Tan, who was not even a Chinese national, actually felt afraid she would be "deported" to China.

“(The scammers) were trying to pressure me because I got the call in the morning and the (arrest) was going to happen that same evening,” said Tan.

She added that the main scammer she was in contact with previously made her feel that he was helping her to the point she did not have to be deported, which made her feel indebted to him.

It was a psychological trap.

When Tan was suspicious as to why she had to hand over actual cash, the scammer said this was to check the serial numbers of the notes to verify the money was “clean”.

He claimed this would prove her innocence and show that she was not one of the suspects.

The scammer also convinced Tan that there were spies in the police and banks so she should not trust them.

By then, it had been around a month since Tan first received the AirChina scam call and she was physically and mentally drained.

She said she no longer had clarity of mind and would do whatever it took to clear her name and protect her family.

Withdraw S$250,000 with some difficulty

Tan decided to withdraw S$250,000 in S$100 notes from two banks, a portion of which came from selling assets, such as stocks.

The first bank allowed her to withdraw the money as it was a smaller amount.

However, the second bank blocked her attempts a few times and even froze her account as they were trying to protect her from a possible scam and even got an officer from the anti-scam centre to call her and warn her.

But Tan had made up her mind and lodged a police report, which stated she was withdrawing the money for personal use and was not being scammed.

With the police report, she went back to the bank to say that the money belonged to her and she needed it to settle a gambling debt.

That allowed her to withdraw the larger sum from the second bank.

Packed cash into backpack

In May 2025, she packed the cash into a backpack before meeting a person at a park to hand over the money and even helped the person pack the money into his bag.

That person turned out to be a money mule, who was also a victim in the ruse.

“The whole exchange didn’t even take more than five minutes,” said Tan.

She was given a photograph to facilitate the identification of the person she was supposed to meet and she eventually received a fake receipt document to confirm the handover took place.

The scammers continued to stay in touch with her until two weeks later when Singapore police called Tan to tell her she had been scammed.

Didn't believe police when told she was a victim

In early June 2025, Tan received a call from the police to inform her that she was a victim.

The call was made by Assistant Superintendent of Police Steven Lee, who is a senior investigation officer in the Anti-Scam Command of the Commercial Affairs Department.

But Tan told him: “I don’t believe you.”

It was only when Lee revealed details of the case, such as the S$250,000 amount and asked Tan if she had passed the cash to someone in a park, that she realised no one else could have possibly known about this as she was warned not to divulge the information.

Money mule made police report

The scam came to light after the money mule involved in the ruse made a police report when Lee was on duty.

Lee told media: "I was alerted that a young money mule reported that he had received S$362,000 from three victims. From there, we conducted follow-up investigations and identified one of the victims."

"The young money mule was being deceived by the same fake government official... and he was asked to collect money from three individuals to prove his innocence."

He had searched online for more information about such government officials scams and found his situation fishy.

The money mule then went to a nearby neighbourhood police centre and consulted a police officer on duty.

Managed to retrieve S$250,000

Together with other colleagues, Lee investigated the scam and later in June, he called Tan down to the station regarding new developments in the case.

He informed Tan at the station that the police managed to recover her S$250,000.

Tan said: “I felt so grateful to investigating officer Steven Lee and other officers even though they said they were doing their job because they worked round the clock and actually managed to get my money back.”

She added: “IO Steven Lee also comforted me and said even though the money is lost, what’s more important is that I am alive, the money can be earned back.”

It took about one week to identify the other victims.

"After we established the identity of the victims, (Tan) did not trust me at first," Lee explained. "So I had to give her time to verify my identity and I asked her to call the official hotline."

Don't deal with scams alone

On hindsight, Tan realised that real police officers would never ask her for cash or arrest her without a warrant.

She wanted to share her experience and warn others as she thought she was educated enough to avoid being scammed, but still ended up falling for an elaborate ruse.

The fear that pushed her over the edge?

She was threatened with being "deported" to China, even though she was born and raised in Singapore.

On hindsight, it appeared so easy to be shocked at this blatant false threat.

All the money scammed were recovered

Miraculously, the police eventually recovered S$362,000 belonging to three victims, including Tan.

The cases for the two other victims are still under investigation.

Reported government officials impersonation scam cases nearly tripled

Tan is among many victims of government officials impersonation scam cases.

The number of reported cases almost tripled, with an increase of 199.2 per cent from 589 cases in the first half of 2024 to 1,762 cases in the first half of 2025, according to the Singapore Police Force’s (SPF) Mid-Year Scam and Cybercrime Brief 2025.

In the report, SPF noted that government officials impersonation scams are among the key scam types that are of particular concern in the first half of 2025.

The report added that government officials impersonation scams recorded the second highest loss among all scam types in the first half of 2025.

The amount lost to this scam type increased by 88.3 per cent from S$67.2 million in the first half of 2024 to S$126.5 million in the first half of 2025.

The report also noted that adults, aged 30 to 49, made up 35.6 per cent of scam victims.

A total of 20.7 per cent fell prey to e-commerce scams, 20.2 per cent fell prey to phishing scams, and 15.8 per cent fell prey to job scams.

Adults most commonly respond to scammers via social media, messaging platforms and phone calls.

The average amount lost by adults to scams is S$22,329 per victim.

Scammers act as local authority

SPF noted in their report that government officials impersonation scams typically involve scammers impersonating local government officers such as SPF, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), bank or financial institution representatives or China government officials such as China Police.

In the case of impersonation of China government officials and local government officials through calls, victims have been observed to receive unsolicited calls from scammers.

The scammers would claim that victims were associated with credit cards, bank accounts, phone numbers or flight ticket purchases that were eventually involved in fraudulent activities, such as the sending of scam messages.

When victims denied being involved, they would be transferred to another scammer claiming to be a China government official, such as China Police, who would accuse victims of being involved in criminal activities, such as money laundering.

Meeting mules in person part of modus operandi

SPF also highlighted in their report a rising trend where victims are pressured into withdrawing cash, purchasing gold bars or declaring valuable possessions, such as jewellery and luxury watches, before meeting mules in-person to hand over these valuables, purportedly for investigation purposes.

Another approach involves fund transfers, which is believed to be done to increase credit limits to enable large purchases of jewellery and precious metals, particularly gold bars.

In the case of impersonation of China government officials and local government officials through calls, scammers would then instruct victims to perform monetary transactions for investigation or bail purposes, such as transferring money to bank accounts or "safety accounts" supposedly designated by China authorities or handing over cash to unknown subjects.

This variant accounted for 6.6 per cent of the total cases in the first half of 2025.

Precautionary measures to take

Members of the public who are dealing with scams or suspected scams can take the following precautionary measures:

• ADD

  • Add the ScamShield App to block calls and filter SMSes
  • Set transaction limits that are adequate for daily expenses
  • Lower transaction notification thresholds
  • Alert the bank immediately of any suspicious activity in your bank account
  • Activate the Money Lock feature of your bank to digitally secure your money

• CHECK – Check against the 24/7 ScamShield Helpline at 1799 or other official sources.
• TELL – Tell your bank immediately if you suspect that you have fallen victim to a scam to block any fraudulent transactions, and then make a police report.  Report any scams to the authorities, family, and friends if or when you encounter scams.

If unsure about any request involving your money or bank account, MAS encourages the public to call the 24/7 ScamShield Helpline at 1799.

Top photos via Mothership