The Police would like to alert the public on a new variant of scam, where scammers are targeting job seekers in Singapore.
In these cases, victims would receive emails from scammers who would claim to have come across the victims’ resume on job portals. These scammers would claim to be working in various financial institutions in Singapore and had shortlisted the victims as potential hires for the financial institutions that they represented. Thereafter, they would request for the victims’ contact details to facilitate interviews over WhatsApp. The scammers would use foreign WhatsApp numbers while claiming to hire for their Singapore office. In some cases, the scammers would introduce investment opportunities to the victims, instructing them to download dubious applications and to transfer funds to bank accounts belonging to unknown individuals. Victims would only realise that it was a scam when they contacted the respective local financial institutions from their official website to verify the identities of the supposed recruiters.
Members of the public should be wary of the following red flags when encountering such situations:
- The use of foreign numbers while hiring for a Singapore office; and
- Requests to transfer funds to bank accounts belonging to individuals you have not met in person.
Members of the public are advised to adopt these crime prevention measures:
- Always verify the authenticity of the call or callers’ intent with the official website or sources. You may do so by contacting the companies that claimed to be hiring;
- Report the fraudulent recruiter via the job portal’s reporting function to prevent the recruiter from targeting other victims; and
- Report and block the WhatsApp number via the in-platform reporting function.
If you have information related to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. Please call ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Join the ‘Spot the Signs. Stop the Crimes’ campaign at www.scamalert.sg/fight by signing up as an advocate to receive up-to-date messages and share them with your family and friends. Together, we can help stop scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim.
Annex A
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
29 September 2021 @ 10:30 PM