Officers from Jurong Police Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Commercial Affairs Department conducted extensive follow up investigations and tracked down a 16-year-old male, who turned out to be a victim of a China Official Impersonation Scam (COIS).
On 14 May 2022, the Police received a report that a 16-year-old male teenager (“victim”) had allegedly been kidnapped. The victim’s local guardian, as well as his parents, who were based in China, had received video of the victim with hands appearing to be bounded together, with ransom demanded from an unknown person speaking in Mandarin. Following the report, officers from Jurong Police Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Commercial Affairs Department were activated and conducted extensive investigations to locate the victim. He was eventually found to be safe and sound on 16 May 2022.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim had received an unsolicited call, purportedly from an Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officer. The scammer alleged that the victim had registered for a mobile number in China and the mobile number was used to scam victims in Singapore. The victim was then routed to another scammer masquerading as “the China Police”, for investigations. Sometime in May 2022, the scammer purportedly instructed the victim to isolate himself to facilitate their investigations. The victim was further instructed to cease communication with his family and friends. During this period, the scammer purportedly instructed the victim to take videos of himself with his hands bounded, to appear as if he was injured, and had also directed him to pen a scripted farewell letter.
Without the victim’s knowledge, the scammers sent the videos to his local guardian and victim’s parents to demand for ransom to be paid for his release. The Police were able to intervene and trace down the victim before the ransom was paid. Police investigations into the case are ongoing.
From January 2022 to March 2022, a total of 109 COIS cases were reported with losses amounting to at least S$14.6 million. The Police would like to highlight that the China Police, Interpol and other overseas law enforcement agencies (LEAs) have no jurisdiction to conduct operations in Singapore, arrest anyone or ask members of the public to help with any form of investigations without the approval of the Singapore Government. The Police take a serious view against any person who may be involved in scams, whether knowingly or unwittingly, and they will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
The Police would also like to advise members of public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties, especially those with the “+” prefix which originate overseas:
- Ignore such calls and the caller’s instructions. No government agency will instruct payment through 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 foreigners receiving calls from persons claiming to be from Police in your home country, call your Embassy / High Commission to verify the claims of the caller;
- Refrain from giving out your 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;
- Do not make any fund transfers if the caller is of dubious identity;
- Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotion and err in your judgement; and
- If in doubt, always hang up the call and check with the Singapore Police Force.
If you have any information related to such crime, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or dial ‘999’ for urgent Police assistance.
To seek scam-related advice, members of the public may call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg. Do share this advisory with your family and friends to prevent them from being the next scam victim.
Annex A
Screenshot of the messages from the scammer
Farewell letter scripted by the scammers
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
26 May 2022 @ 8:05 PM