A remarkable story of vigilance and dedication to protecting vulnerable individuals from scams has emerged from Singapore. On December 24, 2024, a 70-year-old woman visited the DBS Century Square branch, demanding to withdraw $190,000 in cash. The woman, who was being coached by a scammer over the phone, became agitated and verbally abusive when the bank refused to allow the withdrawal due to suspicions of a scam.
Assistant service manager Fionice Teoh, who was 38 weeks pregnant at the time, calmly and professionally handled the situation, despite the woman’s abuse. Teoh alerted the bank’s anti-scam team, and after two hours of convincing, the woman finally left the bank. The police’s Anti-Scam Centre was contacted, and Deputy Superintendent Benedict Ng visited the woman’s home, discovering that she had already withdrawn $12,000 from another branch and was about to hand it over to the scammers.
The scammers had convinced the woman that they were banking personnel and law enforcement officers, and that they needed to examine her cash as part of a money laundering investigation. Ng spent an hour convincing the woman that it was a scam, and she was relieved to learn the truth. Thanks to the quick thinking and actions of Teoh and Ng, the woman avoided losing over $200,000 of her life savings.
This incident highlights the importance of vigilance and education in preventing scams. Since 2020, victims in Singapore have lost about $4 billion to scams, with 1,504 cases of government official impersonation scams reported in 2024 alone. Laws have been passed to cane scammers, and banks are continually fine-tuning their safeguards to protect customers. The public is advised to add security features like the ScamShield app, verify the identity of callers or senders, and lodge police reports in case of suspected scams. As Ng noted, every successful intervention means a family keeps their savings, or someone’s future remains secure.