When Ms Teo Shaw Leng was alerted in August that an elderly customer was claiming she needed to withdraw around $500,000 for her critically ill "husband" in Europe, the deputy manager of UOB's PLQ branch in Paya Lebar sensed something was wrong.
She approached the customer, who was in her 70s, for more information, and saw a message from a foreign number pop up on the woman's phone which read: "Honey, are you ok?" This heightened her suspicion that the woman had fallen for a scam, and the deputy branch manager jumped into action immediately.
She spoke to the woman privately and learnt the latter had already withdrawn $300,000 from another bank to pay the medical bills of her "husband".
She then asked for proof of their marriage, but the woman could not provide any evidence.
Ms Teo told The Straits Times: "From our conversation, I learnt that she had been in a relationship with this man for over six months and they had communicated only online.
"She showed me photos of the hospital and sounded panicked when she talked about needing to send the money over." Ms Teo alerted her superiors and the bank's fraud investigation team, which froze the customer's account.
This story is from the December 08, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the December 08, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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