Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department and the seven Police Land Divisions conducted an anti-scam enforcement operation between 25 and 28 March 2024. A total of eight men and one woman, aged between 32 and 57, are assisting with investigations for their suspected involvement in technical support scams.
Since January 2024, the Police received at least 78 reports of technical support scams, with total losses amounting to at least $6.7 million. In this scam variant, victims would receive pop-ups on their laptops or desktops claiming that their electronic devices had been compromised. The pop-up alerts would contain contact number(s) for victims to call for technical support. When victims called the number(s), scammers impersonating Microsoft or Apple tech support employees would claim that the victim’s device had been compromised by “hackers” and was used for illegal activities. Subsequently, the scammers would instruct victims to access websites and/or download software that would grant scammers remote access to their devices.
To reinforce the deceit, the call would be forwarded to another scammer claiming to be a law enforcement officer who would use the remote access function and pretend to help victims lodge a fraudulent police report through a scam website. Subsequently, the scammers would direct the victims to log into their i-Banking account on the pretext of helping to apprehend the “hackers”. Once the victim is logged in, the scammers would use the remote access function to perform unauthorised transactions using the victim’s bank account. In some cases, the scammer would guide victims to create cryptocurrency accounts or provide OTPs to authorise i-Banking transactions. Victims would subsequently realise that they had been scammed when they discovered unauthorised transfers or deductions from their bank accounts.
Following the operation, preliminary investigations revealed that majority of the persons had allegedly facilitated the scams through receiving monies purportedly for the purpose of cryptocurrency trading. One person had allegedly received money into his bank account and transferred the money to his cryptocurrency trading account, purportedly to meet the minimum sum in his trading account so that he could be eligible to withdraw the money. However, the person did not manage to withdraw his money from the trading account.
Members of the public are advised to take the following steps immediately if they believe that they have fallen prey to such scams:
- Turn off your computer immediately to limit any further activities that the scammers can perform;
- Uninstall any software that you have installed at the instructions of the scammers;
- Perform a full anti-virus scan on your computer and delete any malware detected;
- Report the incident to your bank to halt further activities relating to your bank account(s);
- Change your Internet banking credentials and remove any unauthorised payees who may have been added to your bank accounts, and
- Report the incident to the bank and the Police.
If you have information relating 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. All information will be kept strictly confidential. If you require urgent Police assistance, please dial ‘999’.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Helpline 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. Fighting scams is a community effort. Together, we can ACT Against Scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim!
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
29 March 2024 @ 2:40 PM