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The Police would like to alert members of the public on a resurgence of fake friend call scams. Since March 2026, there were at least 146 cases reported with total losses amounting to at least $311,000. 

In these cases, victims would receive unsolicited phone calls or WhatsApp calls/messages from a scammer. The scammer would ask the victims to guess his real identity, in which the victims would provide the name of a known contact whom they believed the scammer could be. The scammer would assume the identity of the person mentioned by the victims. The scammer would subsequently contact victims for urgent financial assistance or assistance in performing a banking transaction, Victims would then be provided with a local bank account, PayNow number or QR code to transfer the money. Victims would only discover that they had been scammed after contacting their actual friends or acquaintances whom the scammers had impersonated  

In some cases, the victims would subsequently receive another call from a second scammer impersonating as a government official from the Police or the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The scammer would enquire about the victims’ earlier fund transfers and allege that they were linked to criminal activities. The victims would then be instructed to make further monetary transfers for investigation purposes.        

The Police would like to advise members of the public to be wary of any persons who contact you via an unknown number and asking you for urgent financial help. Always make further checks to verify the identity of the requestors through other sources. Never transfer money to any persons whose identity is not adequately verified. We would also like to remind members of the public that Singapore Government officials will never ask members of the public to do the following:

• Ask you to transfer money, luxury watches, gold or cryptocurrency over the phone.
• Ask you to disclose bank login details.
• Ask you to install mobile apps from unofficial app stores; or
• Transfer your call to the Police.

Members of the public are encouraged to adopt the following precautionary measures to avoid falling for scams:

(a)   ADD – Add the ScamShield App to protect yourself from scam calls and SMSes. Set security features (e.g., set up transaction limits for internet banking transactions, enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), Multifactor Authentication for banks). 

(b)   CHECK – Check for scam signs with official sources. You can check the legitimacy of suspicious messages, phone numbers and website links via the ScamShield app.

(c)   TELL – Tell the authorities, family, and friends about scams. Report any fraudulent transactions to your bank immediately.

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamshield.gov.sg or call the 24/7 ScamShield helpline at 1799.