S'pore woman, 63, loses S$4,000 to man impersonating senior center staff, only finds out after she couldn't buy dinner due to rejected debit card

A 63-year-old woman lost almost S$4,000 to a scammer who impersonated a staff member at a senior citizen centre in Singapore.

On Instagram, the victim's daughter shared that her mother fell for a scam in which a man posed as a staff member at Precious Active Ageing Centre (PAAC).

The man instructed her mother to download an application, then gained access to her phone and took control of her bank account.

He then transferred about S$4,000 from her account to another account before the victim realised it.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Home Swee Home (@home.swee.home)

Facebook ad

Speaking to Mothership, the daughter said her mother came across a Facebook ad that appeared to be from PAAC and promoted activities for seniors.

Such activities include educational talks, community events and overseas group trips.

Interested, her mother responded to the advertisement and left her contact details.

She then received a WhatsApp message from someone claiming to be from PAAC.

In the screenshots, the person said PAAC is an "all-in-one" service centre for seniors, with different activities every day.

The person also shared photos of these activities and PAAC members.

The person running the PAAC WhatsApp account then asked the victim if she would like to join and offered to help her complete the online registration.

The victim agreed, and the person provided his personal contact details, instructing her to contact him via his "private account" to confirm further details and send her more group photos for reference.

Download an app

The mother then contacted "Alan" on WhatsApp and gave him her personal details on Sep. 16.

The daughter told Mothership that her mother chatted with "Alan" for 30 minutes, whom she found very friendly, and that he repeatedly praised her mother for being smart throughout the call.

"Alan" then told her mother to download the PAAC application to stay up to date with the latest activities.

On Sep. 17, he sent her an APK file via WhatsApp and guided her through downloading the app.

Although no banking details were entered, the mother received an OTP via email and entered it as part of the steps.

The mother also noted that the download failed the first time, but "Alan" guided her through it again.

Discovery

On Sep. 19, her mother discovered she could not buy dinner because her debit card was rejected multiple times.

When she tried to log in to her DBS account to figure out what went wrong, it told her that her password was wrong.

Unsure what was wrong, they decided to call the bank to freeze her account as a precaution.

That was when the bank told them that four transactions totalling about S$4,000 had been transferred out of her account that day.

The bank also told them the account was compromised two days ago because her account was linked to a new phone number.

The daughter told Mothership that the bank's anti-scam protocol activated when the scammer tried a fifth transaction, leaving her mother unable to pay for dinner.

Disbelief

When asked how her mother was, the daughter shared that she was in "disbelief" that "Alan" was a scammer.

Her mother genuinely thought the man was from PAAC and was being helpful and kind.

"She was then very angry that he used such tactics to scam her and also blamed herself for trusting him blindly," she added.

"She is usually vigilant against scam calls and will avoid clicking suspicious links; however, she did not expect scams to be this intricate now and make victims voluntarily contact the scammer via impersonation ads.

She would like to spread awareness and get more people to share about this scam tactic, especially the elderly who are the targets. As elderly may not be as active on social media platforms, it would be best if the younger generation can help to inform their parents/grandparents of this as well."

Warning

On Oct. 9, the Bishan Neighbourhood Police Centre posted an advisory on Facebook about PAAC impersonation.