OCBC posted on Facebook on how they managed to stop a scam after a woman met a prince charming on Facebook.
Here is what they posted on Facebook:
This 57-year-old female customer was relentless. She visited the OCBC Choa Chu Kang branch three times on 14, 15 and 17 June 2021 to try to remit EUR6,600 (about SGD$10,500) to her ‘boyfriend’, saying it was to help him with his ‘pipe repairing machine for his business’. She said she had met this guy ‘a few years ago’ but only started really talking to him on Facebook after her husband passed away a few months ago.
Our branch colleagues became suspicious when they noticed that the funds transfer was to be made to a personal bank account in Thailand, but her ‘boyfriend’ was allegedly based in the USA with his daughter. Our colleagues spent more than an hour each time trying to dissuade the customer from transferring the funds as they were convinced this was a scam. However, the customer was insistent that she wanted to help her boyfriend. Both times, on 14 and 15 June, our colleagues refused to transfer the funds for the customer and had to advise her to tell the ‘boyfriend’ not to pressure her to give him money, if he really loved her.
It was revealed to our colleagues later that the ‘boyfriend’s daughter’ even called her using WhatsApp to try to convince her to help her father out by sending him money for his business, making the customer feel very confused and sympathetic.
Our branch colleagues then reached out to the Singapore Police Force and officers from the Choa Chu Kang NPC also attempted to speak with the customer to advise her against sending the scammer monies.
On 17 June, around noon, the customer came back to the branch again and insisted on transferring the money to her ‘boyfriend’. Our colleagues, again, persuaded our customer not to. As a last resort, they agreed to have a joint video call with the customer and her ‘boyfriend’. The customer then returned to the branch at about 6.30pm to prepare for the video call (as the boyfriend indicated he was only available at ‘lunchtime’ in Italy, which is 7pm Singapore time – another tell-tale sign that something was amiss since he was supposedly based in the USA!). Together with the customer, our colleagues waited until 8pm (way past branch opening hours), but the video call did not happen as the ‘boyfriend’ was not ‘available’.
Our colleagues told the customer that the ‘boyfriend’ would only call her later that night with numerous excuses about not being available at the scheduled call time, which is exactly what happened, according to the customer, who came back to the branch once more the next day to thank our colleagues for saving her from losing her monies. Thankfully, thanks to the vigilance, patience and persistence of our colleagues, the customer did not transfer any money to the scammer!
In the picture from left: Benjamin Lai (Customer Service Manager), Winnie Chng (Branch Manager), Chen Jiali (Service Officer), Goh Swee Lee (Customer Service Manager) and Toh Poh Kim (Service Ambassador).