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S’pore woman gave $250k to scammers despite frozen bank accounts, police advice
Christine TanSat, 30 August 2025 at 3:00 pm SGT
4 min read
![[Embargoed till 28 Aug, 3pm]ST20250818-202580600833-Lim Yaohui-Christine Tan-chscam28/Ms Sabrina Tan, (not her real name) a scam victim being interviewed by the media at Police Cantonment Complex on Aug 18, 2025. A victim was scammed out of S$250,000 by individuals claiming to be from Shanghai Police, alleging she was involved in a money laundering case. She subsequently handed over the cash to a scammer claiming to be a “Shanghai Police associate". However, after being contacted by the Police, the victim realised she was a victim of a scam. Through follow up investigations, the police successfully recovered the full amount.(ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI)](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/bat0NzoAzRP8kEnGGKofjg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD04Mjg7Y2Y9d2VicA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/straits_times_442/541bd73fe741a43f0c19fe3bbe25b080 "[Embargoed till 28 Aug, 3pm]ST20250818-202580600833-Lim Yaohui-Christine Tan-chscam28/Ms Sabrina Tan, (not her real name) a scam victim being interviewed by the media at Police Cantonment Complex on Aug 18, 2025. A victim was scammed out of S$250,000 by individuals claiming to be from Shanghai Police, alleging she was involved in a money laundering case. She subsequently handed over the cash to a scammer claiming to be a “Shanghai Police associate\". However, after being contacted by the Police, the victim realised she was a victim of a scam. Through follow up investigations, the police successfully recovered the full amount.(ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI)")
Sabrina, a Singaporean in her 40s, had handed over her life savings to a stranger at a park in Sembawang in May.
SINGAPORE – Her bank accounts were frozen, and police had warned her that she was the victim of a scam, but a woman persisted in handing over $250,000 to fraudsters claiming to be police officers from Shanghai.
Sabrina (not her real name) was so insistent that she made a police report in Singapore stating: “I’m not a scam victim”.
Sabrina, a Singaporean in her 40s, had handed over her life savings to a stranger at a park in Sembawang in May. She was told the man was an associate of the “Shanghai police”.
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It was all a scam. Fortunately, officers from the Singapore Police Force (SPF) recovered the money two weeks later.
Recalling how she fell for a government official impersonation scam, Sabrina said in a media interview on Aug 18 at the Police Cantonment Complex: “I thought I was smart enough and aware enough (of scams).”
Figures released on Aug 30 showed government official impersonation scams have almost tripled, with 1,762 cases reported in the first half of 2025 compared with 589 over the same period in 2024.
It was one of the top scams of concern in the police’s mid-year scams and cybercrime report. Victims lost $126.5 million in the first six months of 2025, compared with $67.2 million in the first half of 2024.
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Sabrina, who works in the manufacturing industry, said the scam started with a call in April purportedly from “Air China”.
The caller read out her passport number, and claimed Sabrina was involved in buying and then cancelling multiple air tickets.
When Sabrina denied this, he suggested she report her identity had been stolen. He then forwarded the call to “Shanghai police”.
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An individual who identified himself as a police officer named “Lei Jun” then called her on the messaging app Telegram.
He claimed Sabrina was one of more than 400 suspects involved in a global money laundering case.
Lei said she could remain in Singapore if she reported to him daily via text messages and video calls. He also warned her not to speak about the investigation to anyone, even her family members.
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Two weeks later, he told her she would be arrested that evening and deported to China because a scam victim in the so-called money laundering case had committed suicide.
Sabrina, who is married with one child, did not dare to tell her husband about the ordeal.
She said: “(They said) your partner will be also probably investigated and your child would be taken to an orphanage. The scammers make you feel like you are going to lose everything.”
The same day, she received a call from a man claiming to be Lei’s supervisor, who told her she could prove her innocence by handing over all her money in cash.
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Sabrina tried to withdraw her life savings from two banks by following Lei’s instructions. He had told her to lie that she was addicted to gambling, and needed the money to settle her debts.
The banks froze her accounts instead and contacted an Anti-Scam Centre officer, who then called her. But Sabrina did not trust him because Lei had claimed some were spies for criminal syndicates.
After two weeks, she managed to withdraw her money after submitting a police report stating that she was not a scam victim. She also signed a document to waive the banks of all responsibility.
She said: “I wanted to protect my family, because if I really ended up in China’s prison, what would happen to my young child?
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“The banks did their best to prevent me from taking out my money, but I was very persistent.”
After withdrawing her savings, Sabrina carried a backpack stuffed with $100 notes to the park in Sembawang and handed over the money to the man.
The courier turned out to be a scam victim himself. He had been instructed to collect money from others to clear his name as a money laundering suspect.
In total, the man had collected $362,000 from three victims, including Sabrina. He realised it was a scam only when he read about similar stories online.
The man then contacted SPF and the police were able to recover the full sum. They declined to give details of how they did so.
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Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Steven Lee, a senior investigation officer at the Anti-Scam Command, subsequently called Sabrina to tell her it was all a scam, but she did not believe him.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Steven Lee, a senior investigation officer at the Anti-Scam Command, called Sabrina to tell her it was all a scam.
She relented after calling the official police hotline to verify ASP Lee’s identity.
On getting back her money, Sabrina said: “I was very grateful to the police. They turned the impossible to possible.”
ASP Lee said real government officials will not ask people for money or their bank account details.
Sabrina said people who receive calls like she did should speak to their loved ones and not keep it to themselves.
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She said: “When people tell you to not disclose something, the more you need to talk to another person.”
