‘I was too naive’: Retiree loses over $70k to investment scam after meeting woman on TikTok

‘I was too naive’: Retiree loses over k to investment scam after meeting woman on TikTok

SINGAPORE – Thinking he was helping an online acquaintance, James Ng (not his real name) invested in cryptocurrency on a website involving artificial intelligence robots.

To sustain the investment, he borrowed from illegal moneylenders and also asked his son for money. It was his son who told him he had been duped.

After making a police report, Ng, 68, continued interacting with the scammers, hoping to get his money back.

He ended up losing more than $70,000 to two groups of scammers.

Ng, a retiree, was speaking to the media on Aug 21, ahead of the release of the police’s mid-year scam and cybercrime statistics on Aug 26.

The police said investment scams made up the highest amount lost among all scam types in the first half of 2026, totalling $169.8 million.

Ng said a woman messaged him on TikTok in November 2025. They chatted on the platform for several days before she introduced him to the investment scheme.

Said Ng: “We spoke on the phone once. She had a Chinese accent, but told me she was based in Kuala Lumpur.”

The woman asked for Ng’s help to invest in a company that used AI robots to mine cryptocurrency. She claimed she could not invest as she was an employee of the firm.

Ng agreed to help manage her account. He also created his own account, drawn by the promised returns.

He said: “I’m quite old, and I wanted to invest so I could earn more money for my retirement.”

Ng invested about $20,000 in the platform, and was told he earned a $30,000 profit. When he tried to withdraw the total sum, a “customer service agent” said he could not do so due to a slow internet connection.

He was told by “customer service” to invest another $50,000 before he could get the original sum back. He was also asked to pay additional taxes. He did not transfer the sum as he did not have any money left.

Ng then approached a moneylender on TikTok.

He said: “I thought I would be able to repay the loan once I withdrew the money from my investment.”

But the moneylender was just another scammer. Ng lost $2,600 after the moneylender asked him to transfer the amount for lawyer and stamp duty fees.

Ng then asked his son for money. His son said it was a scam, and helped him lodge a police report in December 2025. By then, Ng had already invested about $43,000 into the fake company.

Eager to get his money back, Ng continued speaking to the “customer service agent”, who convinced him to transfer another $27,165.

Ng lost $70,755 of his savings to the AI robot scam. He said he is left with only his Central Provident Fund money.

He finally blocked the woman’s messages.

Close call

In April, Ng was again approached by scammers, who pretended to be a scam recovery company.

They asked him to pay them $20,000 to recover the money he lost to the investment scam.

Ng called the ScamShield Helpline to verify their claims and avoided being scammed.

To date, the ScamShield Helpline has received over 310,000 calls since its launch in September 2024, with around 500 calls daily. Of these calls, 84 per cent were inquiries from users to check if something was a scam.

Asked why elderly people like Ng could be vulnerable to scams, ScamShield operator Ashley Teh said: “I think it’s because the economy is not doing well, so people may want to earn some extra money by investing.

“Another reason could be that he was lonely and wanted someone to talk to.”

The average amount lost per elderly victim increased from $35,374 in the first half of 2025 to $42,347 during the same period in 2026.

After the incident, Ng no longer replies to messages from strangers on TikTok.

He added: “I choose to treat this incident as a lesson. I realised I was too naive.”