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S'pore woman, 37, gets scam call posing as NTUC & MAS staff, loses over S$1.14 million in 4 hours
One scammer video-called her while wearing a fake staff ID.
Daniel Seow
March 03, 2025, 11:41 AM
A 37-year-old woman in Singapore received multiple calls from scammers posing as National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) staff, over fees for an "insurance policy" they claimed she had taken out.
While following scammers' instructions to "cancel" the policy, the woman ended up getting her phone remotely controlled.
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In four hours, she lost over S$1.14 million in total from personal accounts and the company account of a ventilation equipment business she runs with her husband.
Offered help to 'cancel' NTUC insurance policy
The victim, surnamed Wang (transliteration) told Shin Min Daily News that on Feb. 11 at around 3pm, she received a call from a person claiming to be an NTUC staff.
The "NTUC staff" informed Wang that an insurance policy of hers was about to expire, and she would need to pay a S$19,200 fee to renew it for two years.
Wang told Shin Min that she used to be an NTUC member when she was working, and would pay a monthly S$9 membership fee.
So when she got the call, she didn't suspect it was a scam.
However, as Wang felt she did not need the insurance policy mentioned by the "NTUC staff", she asked for it to be cancelled before ending the call.
Not long after, a person posing as an "NTUC manager" called Wang.
The person told Wang that if she wanted to cancel the policy, she would have to do so at her bank before 4pm that day, or the S$19,200 fee would be automatically deducted from her account.
Wang hung up and logged into her personal bank account.
While she was doing so, the "NTUC manager" called back, asking her if she had managed to cancel the automatic deduction, and if she needed help with that.
The scammer also offered to transfer the call to an "MAS staff" to explain the steps required.
Wang subsequently ended the call, logging on to her company's online banking account to try and settle the matter herself.
Tricked her to authenticate OTP with fingerprint
At around 5pm, a person claiming to be an "MAS staff" video-called Wang.
The person, wearing what looked like a staff ID, explained to Wang the steps to cancel her insurance policy.
"He asked me if I wanted to cancel the policy, and I said yes. He also told me that if I didn't apply for the policy myself, it meant that my personal information had been stolen," said Wang.
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Subsequently, the "MAS staff" questioned Wang on details, such as the number of bank accounts she had, the business her company was involved in, and whether it was hiring.
He also told her that she could not disclose what was being discussed to anyone, including her husband.
After finding out from Wang that she would authenticate transactions on her phone via fingerprint, the scammer said she would soon receive an OTP which required her authentication.
Later, Wang found that while she was on the call with the "MAS staff", her phone had been compromised and scammers started transferring funds out from her company's bank account.
But at the time, she did not see the email notifications from her bank regarding the transfers.
At around 7pm, before ending the call, the scammer mentioned that "a sum of money would needed to be transferred out" and if no fraud was detected, "it would be refunded within 24 hours".
Hearing the word 'refund', Wang's suspicions were aroused, but it was too late.
She tried to log in again to her company's online banking account, but failed.
Scammed of over S$1.14 million
After telling her husband about the incident, they found that S$1,143,390 had been transferred out of the account.
This was achieved through 22 transactions, ranging from S$30,000 to S$78,000 each, made to various unknown accounts.
Three of Wang's personal accounts were also breached.
S$18,500 set aside for her mother, S$6,450 in an account for her children, and S$175,000 from Wang's own account had been transferred to the company account before scammers emptied it.
She was left with S$5,000 in the company account and about S$5 in her personal account.
Wang and her husband made a police report the same night.
Has trouble falling asleep
Since getting scammed about two weeks ago, the issue has weighed heavily on Wang.
Wang said she and her husband started running their ventilation equipment system business since 2018, but they are currently facing cashflow issues.
As their company bank account did not have enough for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) GIRO deduction in February, authorities have imposed a 5 per cent fine on them, Wang said.
"It still hurts to talk about this now, but I've already cried till there are no tears left. Sometimes I recall what happened, I would have trouble falling asleep," Wang told Shin Min.
The police told Shin Min that a report was lodged, and investigations are ongoing.
Top image from Shin Min Daily News
