Hi
I would like to write in to share and warn the public of a scamming uncle around Chinatown and Clarke Quay area.
On 29 May 2015, after having lunch at Burger King, The Central Clarke Quay outlet, I went on shopping around the mall. I met this uncle just outside Burger King outlet who was quite well-dressed (blue white strips polo tee with berms and sports shoes) looking lost and in anxiety and was wiping his almost bald head with a handkerchief. He approached me and shared with me that he has lost his wallet at the Raffles Medical clinic and walked all the way from Funan mall to The Central Clarke. He waited at Funan mall for the mystery who took his wallet for an hour plus and was hoping someone would return his wallet but no one turned up.
So now he is in need of helping hand to lend him some cash to take a cab to Clementi to collect his PSA uniform and laptop and proceed to Tuas to work. Meanwhile, he needs to go back to Raffles Medical to collect his heart attack medication. He then asked whether I an able to lend him some cash for his transportation, if not he will have to "walk" back to west coast. He then added that his family are all in Malaysia and he has no one to turn to and he will meet me somewhere and return me the sum and if I reject, he rather not borrow the cash from me. As I was rushing back to office and although hesitant, but out of good will, I took out $20 and passed to him.
I told him I only have this much money on me and he added that $20 might not be enough to pay off the cab fare. He then asked me whether I could withdraw from ATM machine and immediately he directed me to DBS ATM machine inside the mall. As I have decided to help him, although guts feeling telling me that this might be a scam, but I went ahead and withdrew $50 for him. He then asked whether I am able to lend him a few hundred dollars to pay off his medical bills and I rejected as I told him I do not have much money to help him. We then exchanged mobile numbers and I took a photo of him and then we parted.
When I reached office, I SMS him to meet him tomorrow to collect back the cash and he responded ok. When Saturday comes, he SMS me, saying that he has to work and can only meet me on Sunday. I replied saying that I can meet him at Clementi MRT control station and he replied ok. When Sunday comes, I received his SMS in the morning, and he said that his son met an accident in Malaysia and he has to be in the hospital in Malaysia to attend to his son. I began to doubt his sincerity and gave him a call. The ringing tone was a Singapore ringing tone, so I questioned him. He told me that he had diverted his phone to his Singapore phone and he will definitely meet me on 2 June 2015 to return me the sum.
By then, it was very clear that this uncle is out to scam money with his sobz story, so I went on to the police station and made a police report. 2 June 2015 came by and true enough, his phone can't be called through and he never respond to my SMS. Although police report made, but police did mentioned that for such cases, it will be treated as civil suit and there is nothing much they could do, unless I get to meet the uncle again.
Just like to send out warnings to kind people out there, if you ever meet people who tells you such stories, be more wary than sorry. Offer to bring the uncle to police station to make a report instead of giving them money.
The uncle gave me his name as Mr Sam Tan Chee Beng and IC number as S1343056F, mobile number is 98866011. Attach please find a picture of the mentioned uncle and also the police report.
Regards
LHT