I have vacillated on writing this article as I feel a complete fool, and as a CEO Coach, that is not great marketing.

However, over the past week I have been informed of the huge number and magnitude of financial scams that are occurring, and to people more intelligent and savvier than me. Almost everyone I have spoken with has either been scammed or has a friend who has… some for a few hundred dollars and some for close to a million dollars.

So here we go with some difficult sharing.

Last Thursday, I received a call from supposedly the Singapore High Court concerning a claim against me.  Ninety-nine times out of hundred I have historically just hung up.  In this case, I answered.  They informed me about an unpaid credit card bill, with my response being that is not my card, however I did recall at least a dozen calls from that bank alleging an unpaid bill, which I never responded so I suddenly thought this could be genuine.   Additionally, my credit card had fraudulent transactions last month and needed to be cancelled… This again re-enforced that this call could be genuine, and someone may have fraudulently used my identity.

I was advised to speak with the police to lodge a report of stolen identity, which I agreed to do.  The supposed high court person then connected me to the supposed police.  I immediately asked for proof that this was a police officer, and he called me back on WhatsApp and turned on his camera showing himself in a police uniform, in what appeared to be a police office and showed me his warrant card.   We then had a 2-hour conversation at the end of which he said I needed to speak with his Senior Inspector.  Again, I asked for proof from the “Senior Inspector” so he turned his camera on to show he was in a police uniform.  We then had another 2-hour conversation.

I will not go into the details, but effectively in those conversations, they moved me from victim to being one of 200 suspects in Singapore’s largest money laundering case.  I was groomed over a 3-day period, and constantly threatened with the risk of detention if I did not cooperate or if I leaked these discussions.  The threats included an extremely professional looking detention warrant.

In the end, I did lose some money, but fortunately it was not material, and it is more my pride that is damaged.

I have reflected on this and have some learnings, of course based on my Impactful Leadership Framework and learnings from the great business author, Jim Collins … sadly I did not utilise these at the time, but hopefully some of you can. What I did not execute was:

1. Trust but verify: As all my clients know, this is one of my favourite guiding statements.  I did do some verification with the videos but not even close to what I should have done.  Interestingly, I did push each day to come up to their headquarters, but the timing was around Singapore’s National Day and there was always a reason that this did not work for them.  On day three, I did go to the police headquarters and that confirmed the scam.
2. Anticipate so not forced into decisions: Given the stress they were putting me under with threats of detention for lack of cooperation, I did not look further out and anticipate where they were taking this.  I also did not act on my gut instincts… mine suggested something was not right, but I ignored it.
3. “Step out of the picture frame and look back at the picture” to get a clearer view.  In crisis you need to step away or above the issue to gain true perspective.  Sadly again, I did not follow the advice I have given to many.
4. Don’t be bullied by experts: I was far too deferential given my respect for the law and because these supposed police officers were amazing in terms of how they portrayed themselves with their knowledge, respectful, yet direct, way of dealing with me, faking “discussions with my bank and the monetary authority of Singapore”.   It was an extremely professional “sting”.
5. Building Trust: They utilised many of the behaviours that I teach to build trust within organisations.  In interacting with them multiple times a day with calls and WhatsApp messages they built trust.  I am sure many of you have heard about Stockholm Syndrome with victims of kidnapping or abuse over time building positive relations with their captors and empathising with them on their goals… I think I let this happen to me.

Final learnings on why my normally analytical mindset did not kick in:

• This was personal: The moment we allow decisions to become too personal there is a risk your judgement becomes clouded. The scammers know this, so kept me on edge so it was difficult to rationally reflect on what was happening.
• Protecting my family: My wife asked why I didn’t tell her… I wish I had as she would have seen through it. However, the supposed police constantly threatened me that ANY breach of confidentiality would have significant consequences for me and my wife given this was such a high-profile case for Singapore.
• The amount was annoying but not material: I wanted to support the police with this case, and I wanted this investigation to be over.  In the back of my mind, I did make the judgement that the amount was not material…. With that said, I can only hope that if it had been a material amount then logic would have kicked in.  But who knows.

This was a difficult article to write, however leaders need to be vulnerable at times and know when they did not operate or lead the way they should.  This is an example for me.   Hopefully the learning above will help some of you if you accidently accept a scam call.

Finally, a little wiser Impactful Leadership coach, me, is always available to help you.