Singapore Phone Kidnap Scam Alert

In the small quiet neighbourhood of Sengkang,
Mdm Lee was preparing dinner as usual for her
children who were out working at the office.

Her husband David, a man who retired from the business
scene many years ago was taking an afternoon nap
after his morning taichi session with Rose their
friend of 10 years..

The air was soon filled with the smell of chilli
from the spicy soup in the kitchen ... David soon
twitched his nose and gave a yawn as he woke up
and thought its time for dinner when the phone rang ...
Thinking that it was Rose who spoke of inviting them
for a karaoke session at the local cc, David excitedly
reached out for the phone ...

David : "Halo ? Rose is that you ?"

Voice : "Old man ... listen up !!! your son Anson is
now in our hands ! you want him alive you pay us 50,000
in cash or he will be dead like you in few years time !"

David : "Wait what !!?"

Voice : "Old man !! i dun have much time for any nonsense .."
Your money or your son's life ?! You want to speak to him ??"
Another Voice (Desperated) : "Dad !!! hHhHHHelp me !!"

David (trying to calm down) : "ok you dun touch him ..
bring Anson to me i want to talk to him."

Voice : "Halo ??? you stupid or what !? you transfer the
money to this account POSB 99-999-999 in 20 min time or you
will never see him again !! And don't you call the police
if you want to see him alive again !"

David : "Hey wait .."

The line went dead ...

A panicked David rushed out of the room in desperation.
His wife wondered what happened to her husband .. his face
was white as sheet..

15 mins later, the 50,000 was transferred to the account.
David then headed back home and told his wife what happened.

Of course when Anson came back home in the later evening he
realized that his father was the victim of the latest kidnap phone scam.

Enough of the short drama ... Here's the real script ..

'Mum, I've been kidnapped!'

THE families of three teenage girls from a secondary school
in Toa Payoh were the targets of a kidnapping scam last month.

Each time, a girl impersonating the 'victim' would call the family,
claiming that she had been kidnapped and crying for help.
A 'kidnapper' would then take the phone and demand a ransom of $50,000,
threatening to hurt the girl if the family did not pay up.

In each case, however, the parents of the girls contacted
the school and realised that it was a phone scam.

No one had been kidnapped.

But getting such a phone call sent chills up the spine of
Madam Y. S. Lee, 74, the grandmother of one of the girls.
She received the scam call in her Toa Payoh home on the morning
of Feb 26, just after she had returned from the market.

She thought the voice sounded like her granddaughter and was scared.

But she grew suspicious when the kidnapper demanded the '$50,000 that she owes us'.

Certain that her 15-year-old granddaughter would not borrow $50,000 from anyone,
she hung up and rang her daughter-in-law and mother of the child, Mrs K. S. Lim.

'My mind told me that it wasn't her but I was only 50 per cent sure.
All that time when I was waiting, I was hoping that I was right,'
Madam Lee recalled in Mandarin.

And she was. After checks were made, it was confirmed that her granddaughter
was having lessons in class.

Family's hour of terror

4.05pm: Mr Peter Tan receives a call from a sobbing girl who wails in Mandarin: 'Please come and save me. I'm very scared. Someone has abducted me.'

He passes the phone to his wife, who thinks it sounds like their granddaughter Jessica.

The 'kidnapper' then takes over the phone and shouts in Mandarin: 'Give me $50,000 or I'll kill her.' Mrs Tan says she doesn't have the money and asks him to call her daughter Joyce.

4.15pm: The girl calls Joyce. Joyce asks in English if she is hurt but the girl simply repeats her pleas for help in Mandarin. After a minute, the girl hangs up. Joyce calls her daughter, but her mobile phone is switched off. She then calls the police and rushes to her parents' home.

4.30pm: Joyce arrives at her parents' home. She calls Jessica's school and staff members say they will try and locate her. She then calls Jessica's friends.

4.50pm: Joyce finally reaches one of Jessica's friends in school, who tells her that Jessica 'should be in school somewhere doing her project'.

4.55pm: The school calls Joyce back and says it has located her. Jessica's friend finds her and puts her on the phone with Joyce. On hearing her voice, Joyce sheds tears of relief.

When contacted by The Sunday Times, the vice-principal of the all-girls school confirmed the cases which took place on separate days and said that it viewed the situation seriously.

She asked that the school not be named because she did not want to attract attention to it and the affected students.

'We know they are scams but every time we get such a call, we are still very worried. All our students are precious and we have to take each case seriously,' she said.

She added that the girls are not classmates.

The school has ruled out the possibility that information on the phone numbers of family members was leaked out internally as 'we are very careful with the personal information of the school' and 'have absolute trust in the people who have access to it'.

The school has also shared these incidents with the students and reiterated to them not to reveal their contact numbers or personal details to strangers.

Police believe that the people behind the scam operate in the same manner as those who struck in a separate spate of kidnap scams last year, although their so-called 'victims' then were adults.

Last August, more than 10 such scams were reported to the police over a five-day period.

Only one family was cheated of its money then: a 55-year-old truck driver and his wife, who transferred their $52,000 life savings to scammers who lied that they had taken their 30-year-old son hostage. He was actually at work.

Then, in January this year, another four people were cheated of $40,000.

More recently, the police received 21 reports of such scams over a three-day period from Feb 27 to 29, but no one was cheated of his money.

In all cases, the allegations of kidnap were untrue.

Five people have been arrested for their suspected involvement in such scams so far.

The police say 'there is no evidence to suggest that specific groups are being targeted'. The 'kidnappers' are believed to be Mandarin speakers.

Private investigator Lionel de Souza said that the scammers probably regard families with young girls as easier targets.

'They may be more likely to hand over the money as the 'victim' is more vulnerable,' he said.

However, he feels that the girls were more likely to have been picked out randomly than selected.

'If someone really wanted to cheat for money, he would be asking for $1 million from a rich person, not $50,000 from someone he just randomly called,' he said.

Mrs Lim, 45, who works as a designer, feels that the scammers probably got her telephone number from a phone book.

She said: 'We're a middle-class family living in an HDB flat. Why would anyone want to get a ransom from us?'

But hearing the news that young girls are being targeted has got her mother-in-law worried. 'All the time when I was waiting for the news of my granddaughter, my hands could not stop shaking,' said Madam Lee.

'It's not a feeling that anyone should go through.'

What you should do if you get a 'kidnap' call
1) Remain calm and try to contact your 'kidnapped' next of kin immediately.

2) If you are unable to reach him, call the police.

3) To check if the call is genuine, pose questions to the kidnapper to verify the
identity of the 'victim'.

For example, ask them how many members of the family there are, or the name of
the family pet.