11 June 2024
"What’s taking so long? Faster! Ask her to release your account!” an unrecognisable voice yelled out suddenly – a stark contrast to the calm 30-minute private (or so I thought) call I was on with a customer in his 70s.
I work in the Anti-Scam team at DBS, where I verify suspicious transfers with customers to determine if their transactions are scams or legitimate.
In this case, I’d put his account on “no debit” (meaning no money could leave the account) after he attempted a $150,000 transfer to a new account – an action he’d never done in his decades of banking with us.
He had remained calm and collected throughout the 30-minute call, answering our string of questions confidently – he was even able to supply the correct address of the payee listed on our records.
It was all going too smoothly, but I just couldn’t shake this buzzing feeling that something was off – often, these calls can be unexpected to customers, and they’re usually rather tense when answering our verification questions. But I only make calls to them on suspicions that they’re victims of scams.
“Can you please release my account? I need to make an urgent payment for my credit card bill.” He asked once more.
That’s the moment I knew he was a victim. My philosophy in this line of work is that no payment in life is ever urgent. There’s always time, or a grace period to make payments, especially a credit card bill.
“If you are under duress, you need to let me know. Once we release the funds, it’ll be tough for you to get your money back.” I said with renewed conviction.
He hesitated, I heard a click, and the voice blared out over what sounded like his phone’s speakers.
I repeated that I will not release his account on the suspicion that he’s a victim of a scam and urged him to make a police report.
He complied, and the next day, I received his report – the voice over the phone was a scammer coaching him over the line, feeding him answers to throw us off their scent.
He’d been a victim of a technical support scam, but thankfully he didn’t lose any money this time.
We’ve seen a rise in such cases, where fraudsters would be coaching victims live over the phone when answering our verification questions.
Still, we try our best to verify each transaction carefully, even if it means staying on the phone for a longer time with each customer. Knowing that I prevented customers from losing their hard-earned life savings truly gives me purpose, and keeps me going in this role.”
- Cheryl Wang, Anti-Scam team
Asia’s Safest Bank, 2009 – 2024, Global Finance
Best Bank in the World 2022, Global Finance
World's Best Bank 2021, Euromoney
Best Bank in the World 2020, Global Finance
World's Best Bank 2019, Euromoney
Global Bank of the Year 2018, The Banker
