A man in his 70s brought $10,000 in cash to Sian Chay Medical Institution, not to make a donation, but to hand it to the charity’s volunteer executive chairman, Toh Soon Huat, for investment purposes.
This incident revealed that scammers had been impersonating Toh in a fake “investment” chat group, prompting an immediate police report.
Scammers Used Facebook to Target Victims
According to Shin Min Daily News, the victim, Mr. Chen (name changed, 70), told reporters that he recently saw an advertisement on Facebook using the name and image of Sian Chay Medical Institution’s volunteer executive chairman, Toh Soon Huat.
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The ad claimed to offer investment and financial planning courses, which piqued his interest and led him to message the contact.
Mr. Chen said he knew of Toh Soon Huat through the media and newspapers, and had seen reports about his charitable deeds on Facebook, which initially removed any suspicions.
He was later added to a WhatsApp group that instructed him to use WeChat to register for the course.
The group claimed that after completing the course, participants could hand over money to the person claiming to be “Toh Soon Huat”, who would help with investments.
“During this time, the person sent good morning messages daily and collected my ID number and other information, saying they had already set up an account for me. They told me I just needed to deposit money to start trading,” Mr. Chen explained.
Quick Thinking Prevented Financial Loss
Mr. Chen said the scammer had asked him to transfer funds electronically to the prepared account, but since he was unfamiliar with online transactions, he suggested withdrawing cash to hand over in person.
The scammer repeatedly delayed this meeting.
“The person would upload information about profiting from gold trading in the group. I later withdrew $10,000 from the bank and asked when they would collect the money to help me invest. They replied that ‘all beginnings are difficult’ and asked me to wait,” he said.
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Feeling unsafe carrying such a large sum, Mr. Chen visited Sian Chay Medical Institution on Monday (21 April) to find the real Toh Soon Huat, planning to hand over the cash in person.
“I had become suspicious, but after meeting Toh Soon Huat, I confirmed that the investment group was a scam.”
In an interview, Toh Soon Huat said there were many fake accounts on Facebook impersonating him and posting advertisements for investment courses using his name.
“He (Mr. Chen) showed me the chat group where my face was used as the profile picture. There were more than 30 people in it, discussing gold investments.”
Toh emphasised that he doesn’t help people with investments and hopes everyone will stay alert. He has accompanied the victim to file a police report.
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“We don’t know how many people have transferred money to them, and even if they were scammed, they might not necessarily come forward.”
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