SINGAPORE - A 55-year-old woman almost lost $149,000 through a ruse, after she received a call in May claiming that her credit card was misused.

The caller, who posed as a bank officer, claimed that the card had been used for unauthorised purchases in China, police said in a news release on June 10.

“When she denied making any such transactions, she was transferred to another scammer impersonating a police officer,” they said.

“The fake officer claimed she was a suspect in a money laundering investigation and threatened her with a 60-day detention if she failed to cooperate.”

Complying with the scammers’ instructions, the woman then transferred more than $49,000 to a MariBank account they provided on May 24.

MariBank is a digital bank owned by shopping platform Shopee’s parent company, Sea Limited.

“She was falsely assured that the transfer would not affect her account balance,” police said.

However, MariBank flagged the transaction as suspicious and promptly alerted the police’s Anti-Scam Centre (ASC).

ASC officers then convinced the victim that she had been scammed.

The transferred funds were later recovered, and the potential loss of another $100,000 was prevented, police added.

For more information on scams, visit www.scamshield.gov.sg or call the ScamShield Helpline at 1799.

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