The Police have arrested a 23-year-old man for his suspected involvement in a DHL parcel scam.
On 4 July 2016 at about 5.35pm, Police received a report from a 32-year-old woman regarding a call received from an unknown person who claimed to be working for DHL. The woman was told that her parcel containing illegal goods was detained by the Chinese Customs. The call was then transferred to another person whose number was reflected in the woman’s caller ID as ‘999’, and this had also identified himself to be from the Police. The victim was then asked to provide her internet banking credentials, including the One-Time-Password (OTP) from her Internet banking dongle to this said person. Subsequently, the victim discovered that her ibanking account was accessed illegally without her knowledge and about S$36,000 had been transferred to an unknown bank account.
Following the report, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department conducted extensive investigative probes and enquiries. Officers subsequently established the identity of a 23-year-old suspect and he was arrested on 18 July 2016. Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspect is believed to be involved in at least five other similar cases in which the victims had suffered losses amounting to a total of about S$90,000.
The suspect will be charged in Court on 20 July 2016 with the offence of Dishonestly Receiving Stolen Property under Section 411(1) of the Penal Code, Chapter 224 which carries an imprisonment term of up to five years, or with fine, or with both.
The Police would like to advise members of public to take precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
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Ignore the calls. Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore. If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
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Ignore instructions to remit or transfer money. No government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party's bank account.
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Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals.
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Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotion and err in your judgment.
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If you have information related to such crime or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or dial 999 for urgent Police assistance.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
19 July 2016 @ 8:25 PM