Over S$370,000! Singapore and Hong Kong Police Join Forces with Two Major Banks to Successfully Recover Scammed Funds

Recently, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Hong Kong Police joined hands with DBS Bank and UOB Bank to crack down on a technical support scam and successfully recovered S$370,000.

According to a news release from the Singapore Police, on April 18, DBS found a suspicious transaction worth S$180,000 that was initiated by a 70-year-old man from a Hong Kong bank account. The bank's Anti-Scam Team immediately blocked the account to prevent further transactions and reported the case to the police.

The Singapore police were told by a family friend of the victim that S$240,000 was missing from the victim’s UOB bank account. The police immediately worked with the bank and traced the funds to a bank account in Hong Kong.

In the end, the victim's funds were successfully recovered through the joint efforts of the police in both places.

The story began when the victim found that he was unable to close a pop-up while browsing the web, so he sought help from the "Microsoft Helpline" displayed in the pop-up. The scammer claimed that the victim's computer had been "hacked" and his bank account had been used for illegal activities. The scammer also referred the victim to an "SPF cybercrime unit officer".

Under the pretext of "investigation", the criminal divulged the victim's bank account and password and transferred the money from the account. Fortunately, the banks and the police quickly detected the suspicious transaction and managed to recover the lost S$370,000.