The Police have arrested three men, aged between 24 and 26, for their suspected involvement in a China Officials Impersonation scam.
On 11 October 2018, a 34-year-old victim lodged a police report stating that he was duped of over S$1.7 million in a scam. On 9 October 2018, the victim received a call from an unknown man who claimed to be from the Chinese Police. The victim was informed that he was implicated in a transnational fraud and told to surrender all his monies for investigations. On the same day, the victim handed over S$920,000 in cash to a Chinese man on the caller’s instructions, believing that the Chinese man is an Interpol officer. On 10 October 2018, the victim withdrew another S$800,000 from his bank account and handed the cash to the same man.
Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department conducted investigations and arrested three Taiwanese men on 12 October 2018. Preliminary investigations revealed that they had received criminal proceeds that were believed to be linked to China Officials Impersonation scams.
The three men will be charged in court on 13 October 2018 with dishonestly receiving stolen property under Section 411(1) of the Penal Code, Chapter 224. If convicted, they each face an imprisonment term of up to 5 years, or fine, 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
13 October 2018 @ 12:10 AM