Ever peeked at your bank account balance and got a shock? Ever wondered if there was some invisible thief taking your money without knowing (such as slightly reckless spendings at bougee cafes)?
Well, this unfortunate scenario happened to Facebook user Xin Yue just days ago, who checked her POSB account to find that only S$7 remained in the balance. And the culprit wasn’t indulgent spending—she had been scammed.
Woman Left With Only S$7 in POSB Account After PayPal Scammer Made Repeated Withdrawals From Her Account
According to her Facebook post dated 1 April, she was alerted to her misfortune when she arrived at an ATM and discovered only S$7 was left in her account. Unwilling to believe her eyes, she tried to withdraw S$50 only to be declined.
Apparently, all her money had been transferred out of her account by a mysterious PayPal account.
The bank notified her that her losses would be returned following an investigation that was expected to last five days. In the meantime, however, she’d have to fall back on her cash reserves at home, or be forced to “eat grass”, in her own words.
She made a point for readers not to answer calls from unknown numbers or open questionable links, suspecting that was how the scammer acquired her bank account details.
Stay Vigilant Of Scams
In the comments section of the post, readers have been helpful in pointing out the possible ways she could have leaked her financial information.
The most popular speculation is that she had answered a call from a compromised number. To identify a call you probably shouldn’t answer, watch out for the “+65” in front of the number, since no country code should be displayed for a call made within Singapore.
And of course, if the call comes with the country code of Sierra Leone and you have no business there, maybe leave it hanging too.
Another scam related to PayPal, according to the Singapore Police Force, is the PayPal email scam. Scammers will pretend to buy something from a seller on e-commerce platforms like Carousell, and claim to pay through PayPal. They will then send a—you guessed it, fake—PayPal proof of payment, and the poor seller might just send the item to the scammer thinking it is real.
The lesson of the day: never trust an email or call without verifying its authenticity. Or, as some commenters under Xin Yu’s post point out, you could always put money in a milo tin.
For more information on scams and how to prevent them, visit Scam Alert.
Also, check out these anti-scam videos we’ve done in collaboration with the SPF:
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