The Shanghai branch of a foreign company was prevented from a loss of over US$3 million to Internetscammersthanks to a reminder from cops, police said yesterday.

The city’s police operate an anti-fraud center which detects fraud calls made to residents and sends immediate reminders to potential victims through SMS messages or calls.

Police said the potential loss in this case was the largest so far of all the cases in which they prevented people from falling victim to fraud.

Police contacted the company on November 6 after detecting a certain number calling its staff from overseas. Calls were allegedly made to several companies in Shanghai from the same number.

The head of the company, a womansurnamedLi, told police she was in contact with a “legal consultant” at the company’s headquarters who was based in London over a money transfer for the acquisition of another company. Li had agreed to transfer over US$3 million from the branch’s account to a designated account on November 9.

Police suspected a scam. Li was advised by the police todouble checkthe issue with the HQ and she was told it had not sent any such message.