OCBC bank staff commended for preventing internet love scam

OCBC bank staff commended for preventing internet love scam

What was supposed to be a normal day at work for Ms Ng Lay Kheng at OCBC Tampines Branch turned out to be a lot more meaningful for the 46-year-old bank staff.

On Aug 30, a 55-year-old man visited the branch with the intention of remitting $17,100 to Malaysia.

When Ms Ng asked the customer what the money was for, she was told that it was for an "anti-terrorism certificate" for clearance of a parcel that was kept at the Kuala Lumpur customs.

Upon hearing this, Ms Ng suspected that something was not quite right. 

She then probed further and found out from the man that the parcel needed to be released as it is said to contain cash in it. And in order to do so, he had to remit the amount over to what he believed to be KL customs.

Ms Ng escalated the matter to the fraud risk management team. The police were contacted and managed to intercept the remittance. 

According to the police, preliminary investigations revealed that the man had met an unknown woman on a social networking site and eventually developed a romantic relationship with her. He was then asked to remit money overseas on the pretext of various reasons, such as payment for examination fees, parcel fees or immigration clearance fees.

Before the incident on Aug 30, the victim had already remitted some money to Malaysia on a few occasions, said the police, who added that investigations are ongoing.

For managing to put a stop to the victim's further losses, Ms Ng was commended today by the Singapore Police Force for preventing a potential victim from falling prey to an internet love scam.

When asked how did the victim react when she tried to intervene, Ms Ng revealed that he did not seem nervous or jumpy, and was calm and resolute in wanting to send the money across. She added she was glad that she managed to help.

"I will protect my customer's money the same way I will protect my (own) money," said Ms Ng, who has worked at OCBC for 28 years.

An OCBC spokesperson told AsiaOne that all bank staff are briefed weekly as well as monthly on what to look out for when it comes to potential scams, as culprits these days tend to come up with creative ideas to cheat victims of their money. 

Commander of Bedok Police Division, Assistant Commissioner of Police Tan Tin Wee commended Ms Ng for her vigilance and timely intervention in preventing the victim from falling prey to the scam.

“It is indeed heartening to see the strong working partnership between the Police and the community. The vigilance displayed by Ms Ng is indeed commendable”.

klim@sph.com.sg

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