Retiree signs up for seniors dance group, ends up losing more than $30,000

Mr Xie, a 71-year-old retiree, on April 8 came across a Facebook ad for a dance party for seniors.

Keen to remain active in old age, he clicked on the ad and left a message to express his interest in joining the group called Charming Senior.

"Someone sent me a message via Facebook the following day, introducing the group and the dance party," Mr Xie told Shin Min Daily News.

"I expressed my interest in participating and gave them my phone number. They started contacting me via WhatsApp."

The person who contacted Mr Xie introduced himself as Chris. He talked about the club's activities such as dinners, dancing and sports.

Chris told Mr Xie he had to pay a registration fee of $5 and sent him a link to pay online.

"When I tried to pay with a credit card, I entered the amount, password and other information, but it didn't go through. I tried with four cards to pay but they all failed," said Mr Xie.

Chris told Mr Xie he could help with the payment and sent him a link to a chat group.

"I clicked on the link and found that I could not join the group," Mr Xie recounted.

"The other party used this as an excuse to call me. He told me to change the settings of my phone and enable all permissions."

After he did as told, Mr Xie noticed his phone flickering. He switched it off and put it on airline mode after restarting.

"I called the bank and was told there were three transfers of $900 and one of $31,000 from my account," said Mr Xie.

"I filed a police report immediately."

The police confirmed receiving the report and investigations are ongoing.

There is a Facebook group called Charming Senior, with videos of people dancing and posts promoting dance parties.

The account has disabled the message function and the e-mail address listed did not exist when The New Paper tried to reach out to the group.