Mary Tan (not her real name), age approaching 40, registered herself in a popular international online dating site. The site promised to help her find the love of her life. Many applicants look responded to her but eventually, she was attracted to a guy name James who claimed to be an American diplomat stationed in London. They chatted often enough and soon, Mary’s feeling towards James grows beyond friends.
One year later, James made his move. He claimed that his friend wants him to help in a property business in Singapore. He was told to transfer funds to his friend before starting the business. Mary had to open a bank at America after which, she had to transfer the money in to the America bank before transferring the money to her Singapore bank. James persuaded Mary to help him and Mary finally gave in. Mary had a hard time transferring the money because every time when she tried to do so, she met with an error that asked her to consult the bank for help. She was told to pay a sum of money before they send her the security code. For fear of being caught, she was told by Sarah to transfer the money to eight different bank accounts.
However, she met with the error again and was told to pay for a non-residential code before she can transfer the money. She did not want to pay the bank anymore however, trusting that James will come to Singapore to see her; she eventually gave in and paid the bank for a non-residential code. Again, an error occurred and she called the bank for help. She was then told that she had to pay a sum of money for the currency transaction tax. Finally, this time round, she managed to transfer the money over, not knowing that it was a cyber scam all along.
Throughout all these while, James kept reassuring her that he will return her the money and that he will be buying ticket to come Singapore to visit her. When the transaction was finally successful, he told Mary that her money will be transfer to her account the next following day. Unfortunately, the money did not show up in her account. James called her a few days later and asked her to help him by lending him some money for the business.
Mary went to borrow money from her friends who later told her that she might be scammed. Mary went home to call the parent bank and was told that they had received such reports recently too and advised her to stop sending money over because it could be a cyber scam. Mary then went to report the case and was told that all the transactions and people that she had come in contact with were all from Nigeria instead of America or even London. Mary lost SGD200000 all within three weeks.
Protection and risk prevention and methods against virus, worms, spyware, phishing, and other threats etc.
Exercise caution when dealing with unknown persons “befriended” through the internet. Never put yourself in a vulnerable position or give out personal details about yourself when interacting with other internet users.
Do not remit any money to unknown person. Inform the police immediately if anyone attempts to threaten you.
Never click on links that are unfamiliar to you. Even if they are given by your friends (in msn), do not click on it because it might have virus that might spoil your whole computer.
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