When the police told sisters Faith and Sarah Phua in April 2025 that their 75-year-old mother wanted to transfer $67,000 to an unknown account, they were shocked.
They confronted their mother, who admitted she wanted to send the money to tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom she believed needed help saving his company from ruin.
They were horrified to later learn that since 2022, their mother had been fooled by scammers who used artificial intelligence to impersonate Musk to talk to her.
Over three years, the elderly woman transferred $600,000 to the scammers.
The sisters spoke to The Straits Times at the Police Cantonment Complex in New Bridge Road on March 24.
Sarah Phua, 45, said: “My mum said Elon Musk needed her money to help his business as it was losing money. That was when we knew she had been brainwashed.”
The money she handed over to scammers was from her joint bank account with her husband, 83, and was the elderly couple’s life savings. It was also supposed to be used for her husband’s open-heart surgery in January.
To prevent the transactions from being flagged as suspicious, their mother would make multiple transfers of smaller amounts of $1,000 to $2,000 each time, said the sisters.
Faith Phua, 43, who works in the healthcare industry, said: “She refused to believe she was being scammed. She even told us Elon Musk had introduced her to his friends, Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, and she was helping to manage their finances.”
Her older sister, a homemaker, said their mother claimed she was in contact with Musk’s sister and mother, who thanked her for helping out.
“It sounds unbelievable, but she really believed all that. Speaking to her, I could tell this was not the same person who raised us.”
As a last resort, the police in July 2025 issued a restriction order (RO) to the elderly woman, limiting her banking transactions and preventing her from draining her life savings.
She was the first person issued an RO since the Protection from Scams Act came into effect on July 1 that year.
It gives the police powers to restrict bank accounts of scam victims who insist they are not being scammed despite evidence showing otherwise.
The police have since issued 14 ROs to victims.
ROs last for up to 30 days and can be extended up to five times, which means they can be implemented for up to six months.
The RO for the Phua sisters’ mother was extended the maximum five times, and eventually lifted on Jan 5, 2026.
Sarah Phua said: “When the RO was first issued and our mum’s finances were restricted, she contacted a real estate agent to sell her home. When our dad refused to let her do that, she told him she wanted a divorce.
“They have been married for 50 years. My dad was heartbroken. We all were.”
In late 2025, their mother was diagnosed with psychosis.
Faith Phua said the RO gave their family time to plan their finances.
Her sister said their mother first “met Elon Musk” on TikTok, with their conversations later moving to WhatsApp.
She added: “The calls and texts would happen in the middle of the night, so no one in our family knew about it. On video calls, the scammers would use AI to make my mum believe she was talking to Elon Musk.”
Their mother still speaks to him, the sisters said.
Due to her mental condition, the sisters activated a lasting power of attorney, which allows them to manage her finances.
Sarah Phua added: “We are so grateful to the police investigation officer overseeing our mum’s case. If not for her and the RO, I think our family’s money would have been completely drained.”
New to trading, Charlie (not his real name), who is in his 70s, poured $8,000, which was the bulk of his savings, into a trading app at the behest of a “trading mentor” he never met.
When the police told him the app was fake and that he had been scammed, he refused to believe them.
Speaking to ST on March 19, Charlie, who is married with children, said: “There was nothing romantic with this ‘trading mentor’; we were just friends. I trusted her because she even transferred me money to invest.”
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Lee Hua Sheng from the Anti-Scam Command said the funds the scammer transferred to Charlie were from other scam victims.
This essentially made Charlie a money mule, said ASP Lee.
ASP Lee added: “After more than two weeks of trying to convince him over phone calls and face-to-face meetings, I realised I was not getting through to him. We had no choice but to issue him an RO in November 2025.”
Charlie said he initially did not understand why his bank account had been restricted.
“I thought I couldn’t be losing money because I could see $80,000 in ‘profits’ on the trading app.”
The turning point came in January, when he tried to withdraw his money from the app but could not.
Said Charlie: “I thought it was an easy way to make money, but this made me realise nothing ever comes easy. And it took me losing my savings to realise that.”
[[nid:732510]]
This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
