The Police have arrested a 20-year-old Taiwanese man for his suspected involvement in a series of China Officials Impersonation scams.
On 7 May 2018, a 59-year-old male victim lodged a police report stating that he had been cheated in a phone scam. On 4 May 2018, the victim received a phone call from a man who claimed to be from the Chinese Police. The man told the victim that he was identified to be a suspect in a cross border fraud and had to make an online transfer of his monies to a Chinese bank account for investigations. However, the victim informed that he did not know how to make these online transfers. As such, the victim was then instructed to withdraw all his monies in from his bank account and deliver it to a man at Toa Payoh Central. He complied out of fear, and handed over S$14,610 on the same day, as directed by the caller.
Through extensive follow-up investigations, the 20-year-old Taiwanese man was arrested on 7 May 2018. Preliminary investigations revealed that he is believed to be involved in other similar cases.
The man will be charged in court with dishonestly receiving stolen property on 9 May 2018. If convicted, he faces an imprisonment term of up to 5 years, or fined or both.
The Police would like to advise members of the public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls to surrender money:
- Ignore such calls and the caller’s instructions. No government agency will demand payment through an undocumented medium like a telephone call or other social messaging platforms (WeChat or Facebook); or ask you for personal banking information such as your internet banking passwords.
- For foreign residents receiving calls from persons claiming to be police officers or government officials from your home country, please call your Embassy/High Commission to verify the claims of the caller.
- Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on a 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. Do not make any funds transfer at the behest of such callers.
- Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. Do not be pressured by the caller to act impulsively.
- To seek scam-related advice, you may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
08 May 2018 @ 7:30 PM