'Ah Boy' transfers $1,000 to woman, wants her to pay back $1,350 after 5 days
She wanted to borrow $100,000.
After a woman answered an advertisement offering money loans, $1,000 was transferred to her bank account against her wishes. She was told to repay the money five days later with $350 interest.
Suspecting it was a scam, Stomper Lim made a police report.
She had chanced upon the ad on WhatsApp on March 23.
"I wanted to borrow $100,000 for a monthly repayment plan of $1,830 for 60 months," recounted the Stomper.
The total repayment is $109,800, which means the interest would be $9,800 over five years.
"With my financial capability, I was able to make the commitment of repaying $1,830 for 60 months. So I have contacted this Ah Boy in the loan ad. Ah Boy gave me the Acra (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) number of his company and said that he was a licensed moneylender in Singapore.
"I believed him and passed my NRIC, payslip, CPF contribution, et cetera, to Ah Boy through WhatsApp to let him analyse whether I was qualified to take the loan or not.
"After a few hours, this Ah Boy called me and said I had never taken a loan before. He said he would loan me $1,000 and I had to pay him back $1,350 after five days before he could loan me the $100,000.
"I was not interested anymore and rejected the offer as I knew that it was almost like a scam already. If I passed him $1,350 after five days, he would not lend me the $100,000 and I would lose $350.
"After about two hours, this Ah Boy used the cash deposit machine to deposit $1,000 to my OCBC account and provided me with the loan contract.
"I WhatsApped him that I wanted to cancel and return him the $1,000, asking for his account number to return the money. He said no as the loan had already been processed and I must follow.
"With that, I went to the police station to make a police report. I guess many people like me have been lured into this loan scam that is too good to be true."
In response to a Stomp query, the police confirmed that a report was lodged and said that investigations are ongoing.
The Scam Alert website has this warning about loan scams: "If you receive phone calls, unsolicited text messages via SMS, messaging apps or come across advertisements on social media or online offering loans or loan services, you’ve encountered a loan scam.
"The scammers may claim to be staff from a licensed money lender to gain your trust. You are then instructed to transfer money before the loan can be disbursed. The scammers disappear once the money is transferred.
"They may also ask for personal information like NRIC and contact numbers, Singpass details and bank account numbers. The information is then used to harass or threaten you for more payments."
Remember:
- Licensed moneylenders are not allowed to solicit loans via text messages, phone calls or social media platforms.
- Licensed moneylenders will not request CPF contribution or Singpass login details to facilitate loan approvals.
- Licensed moneylenders are required to meet the borrower in person at the approved place of business to conduct physical face-to-face verification of the borrower’s identity before granting any loan. A loan transaction performed fully online is not allowed.
- Licensed moneylenders will not ask a loan applicant to make any payment (such as for GST, “admin fee”, “processing fee”, or any other fee) before the disbursement of a loan or to secure the disbursement of a loan.
- Licensed moneylenders are only allowed to deduct an administrative fee from the loan principal that is disbursed to the borrower.
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