SINGAPORE: Hanshan Money Express Remittance, which was commended in a police ceremony in July for helping to foil a S$180,000 scam, has thwarted yet another attempt to fool a victim into sending money to swindlers.
In a news release on Thursday (Sep 7), police said a staff from the remittance company, Ms Zhang Lei, detected a suspected case of cheating at about 1pm on Wednesday. It was then discovered that a 30-year-old woman had been scammed into remitting S$1,900 into an overseas account.
This is the second scam the company has intervened in within a week, having successfully helped a 37-year-old man from being cheated of S$3,500 last Thursday.
In this latest incident, investigations revealed that the victim received a phone call from a woman claiming to be from SingPost, who informed her that she had sent a parcel containing counterfeit items that had been intercepted by Shanghai Police.
The victim was advised to lodge a report with the Shanghai police if she had not sent the parcel. The call was then transferred to someone else claiming to be from the Shanghai police, who told the victim that she was involved in money laundering activity and instructed her to report to the office the next day, or she would be arrested by authorities in Singapore. The victim was next instructed to remit money to a bank account in China.
While serving the victim, Ms Zhang suspected that something was amiss and informed her supervisor, who notified the police.
“The police would like to commend Ms Zhang Lei for her timely intervention that helped in foiling the scam attempt,” police said.