{"id":94487,"date":"2026-10-20T20:25:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94487"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:25:01","slug":"singapore-man-71-loses-s21688-in-retirement-savings-after-falling-for-facebook-lottery-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=94487","title":{"rendered":"Singapore man, 71, loses S$21,688 in retirement savings after falling for Facebook lottery scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"storyParagraphFigure\">\n<p class=\"content\">A 71-year-old man in Singapore lost his retirement savings of S$21,688 after falling victim to a lottery scam advertised on Facebook. The elderly man, who is now unemployed, said he has been left penniless and survives on instant noodles and bread.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"artImage leadImage\">\n<div class=\" \"><picture class=\"leadImageClass\"><source media=\"(min-width:768px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/ht-img\/img\/2026\/10\/20\/960x540\/Worried_Elderly_Man_Counting_Coins_1792472830159_HSig_1792472839064_y86N_60d9c1a8-82e3-4303-858a-e7b9720621e8_4Cdg.png\" alt=\"A Singapore man lost his retirement savings after scammers falsely promised him S$300,000 in lottery winnings. (Representational image generated using AI)\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/ht-img\/img\/2026\/10\/20\/400x225\/Worried_Elderly_Man_Counting_Coins_1792472830159_HSig_1792472839064_y86N_60d9c1a8-82e3-4303-858a-e7b9720621e8_4Cdg.png\" alt=\"A Singapore man lost his retirement savings after scammers falsely promised him S$300,000 in lottery winnings. (Representational image generated using AI)\" title=\"A Singapore man lost his retirement savings after scammers falsely promised him S$300,000 in lottery winnings. (Representational image generated using AI)\" width=\"360\" height=\"202\" loading=\"eager\"\/><\/picture><\/div><figcaption class=\"\">A Singapore man lost his retirement savings after scammers falsely promised him S$300,000 in lottery winnings. (Representational image generated using AI)<span\/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"content \">The victim, identified as Yang (transliteration), encountered the advertisement in late August, according to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zaobao.com.sg\/news\/singapore\/story20261018-9855306\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"backlink\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"Shin Min Daily News\">Shin Min Daily News<\/a>, as reported by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mothership.sg\/2026\/10\/elderly-man-loses-life-savings-lottery-scam\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"backlink\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"Mothership\">Mothership<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content \">\n<h2>How the lottery scam unfolded<\/h2>\n<p>Yang initially tried calling the number listed in the advertisement but could not get through. In early September, he received a return call from someone claiming to have connections within Singapore Pools.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"content \">(Also read: <a class=\"backlink\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/trending\/punjab-man-working-as-truck-driver-in-dubai-wins-rs-1-3-crore-lottery-says-i-want-to-use-the-money-for-my-family-101791820049436.html\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"Punjab man working as truck driver in Dubai wins  &lt;span class=\" webrupee=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">\u20b91.3 crore lottery, says &#8216;I want to use the money for my family'&#8221;&gt;Punjab man working as truck driver in Dubai wins  <span class=\"webrupee\">\u20b9<\/span>1.3 crore lottery, says &#8216;I want to use the money for my family&#8217;<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">The caller claimed these contacts could provide winning lottery numbers before each draw, but demanded payment for the information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">The scammers reportedly charged S$1,988 for first-prize numbers, S$1,688 for second-prize numbers and S$1,388 for third-prize numbers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">When Yang said he could not afford these amounts, they offered another arrangement, asking him to pay S$500 for account registration and another S$500 for five sets of 4D lottery numbers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">On September 5, Yang received the numbers and was promised a potential prize of S$300,000. However, none matched the winning results.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">When he questioned the scammers, they claimed the numbers were &#8220;sold out&#8221; because of their popularity. They then promised to arrange for an insider to alter the tickets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">The following day, Yang received a message claiming he had won the first prize, accompanied by a photograph of a cheque worth S$300,000.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content \">\n<h2>Scammers demanded more payments<\/h2>\n<p>To collect his supposed winnings, Yang was asked to transfer another S$1,488.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"content \">On September 9, the scammers demanded S$5,850 in \u201chandling fees\u201d, claiming that transferring such a large sum could raise money-laundering suspicions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Two days later, they demanded another S$7,840.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">(Also read: <a class=\"backlink\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/trending\/security-guard-wins-rs-15-crore-in-uae-lottery-plans-to-quit-job-buy-mahindra-thar-101780999108940.html\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-link-type=\"Manual\" data-vars-anchor-text=\"Security guard wins  &lt;span class=\" webrupee=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">\u20b915 crore in UAE lottery, plans to quit job, buy Mahindra Thar&#8221;&gt;Security guard wins  <span class=\"webrupee\">\u20b9<\/span>15 crore in UAE lottery, plans to quit job, buy Mahindra Thar<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Yang filed a police report on September 16 after failing to receive the promised money. However, he subsequently transferred another S$3,500, hoping to secure the payout.<\/p>\n<div class=\"content \">\n<h2>Left without savings or employment<\/h2>\n<p>Yang eventually realised he had been cheated after receiving further payment demands and reading newspaper reports about similar scams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"content \">His cleaning contract had also expired, leaving him unemployed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">He told Shin Min Daily News that he had lost S$21,688 and could now afford only instant noodles and bread.<\/p>\n<p class=\"content \">Police investigations into the case are ongoing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/trending\/singapore-man-71-loses-s-21-688-in-retirement-savings-after-falling-for-facebook-lottery-scam-101792472106884.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 71-year-old man in Singapore lost his retirement savings of S$21,688 after falling victim to a lottery scam advertised on Facebook. The elderly man, who&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}