Never thought I would meet this direct scam fraud in Singapore myself, although the police and newspaper have always announcing new type of scam frauds committed by criminals time by time.
On the 29th of Oct 2008, was sleeping in my room with the door closed in the morning after the sunrise, still able to hear my mother speaking very loudly and anxiously to someone on the fixed phone line had wakened me up, while lying on the bed. My mom will only speak in that manner if anything has gotten into seriousness, yes, I know her.
At that point, after trying to figure out what had happened with my tiny ears, still not convinced, I opened my room’s door and went out to the living room to get more of the story. Seeing my father, sister and sister-in-law talking curiously in whispers, while my mom slashing on the phone like begging and negotiating with someone.
They told me while lowering in voice, someone has called to our fixed phone line crying, and asking for immediate helps; “he” sounded like my elder brother according to my mom’s initial thinking and at that time, another person turned out to say that he has finally caught my “elder brother” and has beaten him up with a few guys.
While getting too nervous after hearing that, thinking it was most probably my brother, my mother asked for my brother with his name, hoping to confirm, and the crying one answered himself loudly and asking for desperate immediate helps again in the background.
The “person-in-charge” called twice rapidly and eventually speaking on the phone for ransom. At that point, my sister-in-law told me he has called my brother yet he was totally alright and was working on his job. Moreover, I wouldn’t ever have believed that my brother has gotten kidnapped or abducted as well.
Immediately, we told my mother it was just a scam fraud call in whisper and asked her to keep on pretending she was still believing what they had imposed while negotiates dramatically for the ransom with those scam-artists. At the same time, I keyed in 999 in another cellular phone for scam complaints and police assistance, hoping to get phone tracking for their scam fraud location.
The police responded immediately after which another investigator called me back for questions and clues. Told me they were monitoring our phone right then, just after half a minute my mom put down the phone when the “person-in-charge” agreed to set my “brother” free, since she told him she is just a poor aged folk, carrying not much money either in the bank or in person, and begged for mercy after a period of time.
Calming down, my mother told us those scam artists who have participated in this scam fraud sounds alike from China nations, although they were speaking Hokkien dialect and Mandarin, which gave me the thought they were locals while eavesdropping their conversation initially. Well, their speeches consists of non-local tones, which are slightly different from local Singaporean Chinese.
After a while, I read the newspaper, and noticed a call scam news we had been similarly into. So! We are not the only one to get hooked into this direct scam in Singapore. Finally, the day remained calm. They did not call back again. Someday, they will get it from the police. The police force is right, low crime doesn’t mean no crime, be careful now and then for scam fraud, especially in this open Singapore.
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