'I thought I was smart enough'

S'pore woman gives $250k to scammers despite frozen bank accounts, police advice

- Christine Tan

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".

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 that 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.

Sabrina, who works in the manufacturing industry, said the scam started with a call in April purportedly from "Air China".