Six men and one woman, aged between 21 and 25, will be charged in court on 23 September 2021 for their suspected involvement in facilitating the retention of proceeds of crime by a transnational criminal syndicate that was perpetrating Tech Support Scams.
On 16 September 2020, the Commercial Affairs Department received a complaint from a victim in Canada claiming to have lost more than S$12,500 after falling prey to a Tech Support Scam. The scammer allegedly impersonated a member of staff from a company providing firewall and virus removal services and offered the victim a refund on his pre-paid subscription. The victim was allegedly deceived into allowing the scammer to access his computer remotely on the pretext of removing the software from his computer and in the process, his internet banking log-in credentials was revealed in order to process the refund. This led to the victim’s money being transferred out from his Canadian bank account to a bank account in Singapore.
Police investigations led to the arrest of Six men and one woman who were allegedly recruited by an India-based criminal syndicate to transfer money derived from various overseas Tech Support Scams. The accused persons allegedly followed the instructions of the syndicate and began receiving money in August 2020 from unknown overseas sources into their bank accounts, with the total amounting to more than $300,000 by September 2020. The money was then allegedly withdrawn by the Six men and one woman and handed over to other unknown individuals in Singapore. The Six men and one woman allegedly received more than $30,000 as commissions.
The Six men and one woman will be charged in court on 23 September 2021 under Section 44 (1) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Offences (Confiscation of Benefits) Act for assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct and Section 5(1) of the Payment Services Act 2019 for carrying on a business of an unlicensed payment service.
Anyone found guilty of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Offences (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, faces up to 10 years' imprisonment, a fine up to S$500,000, or both. Under Section 5(1) of the Payment Services Act 2019, a person who is convicted of an offence of carrying on a business of an unlicensed payment service is liable for a punishment of a fine not exceeding S$125,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or both.
The Police would like to advise members of the public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls asking to divulge their personal information such as their bank account details:
- Ignore such calls and the caller’s instructions.
- No local government agency will demand payment through an undocumented medium like a telephone call or other social messaging platforms, demand that you hand over cash to unnamed persons, or ask you for personal banking information such as your internet banking passwords.
- Ignore caller’s instructions to install remote access software.
- Ignore caller’s instructions to configure the settings in your computer.
- Verify the call’s legitimacy by contacting the organisation.
- 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, passwords or 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.
The Police would also like to warn members of the public against allowing their bank accounts to be used to assist to launder money from criminal activities. The Police take a serious view of such offences and will not relent in taking offenders to task.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688. Anyone with information on such scams may call the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
22 September 2021 @ 5:45 PM