Court summons scam: 35 complaints filed

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_168340.html

Recent cases of people impersonating as high court officials in order to swindle money out of people have surfaced, with the frauds posing as officials demanding outstanding summons to be settled. At least 35 people have been targeted, and sums as large as $10,000 have been cheated out of a single victim.

While this new fraud is clever than the old fraud which involved the prize which the victim had to pay for before collecting, it still puzzles as to how people can actually fall for it. When one tries to stand in the victim's shoes, we can only conclude that some external factor must have clouded his or her judgement, as a person with calrity of thought at the instant would never have transferred $10,000 to a high court official over the phone without once thinking to check with the high court itself.

The impression of a high court official standing on the other side of the line could be an scary thought for the would-be victim, and he or she might want to hasten to get over with the trouble and forget about the whole business. It is likely that the deep-lasting fear for the police has caused the victim to fall prey.

In light of these new fraud cases, a solution must be quickly thought up to solve all of future problems of the same light. The police must educate the public to be more watchful of such potential frauds, espicially those that invovle the handling of money without ever seeing the other party. Thus, the police teach the people that just because he claims that he is a high court official, he is not neccesary one, and that the public should exercise caution in dealing with such people. Only in this way can future similar scenario be avoided.