The Police would like to alert members of the public to a resurgence of a variant of Government Official Impersonation Scam, where scammers would impersonate Singapore Police Force (SPF) officers to convince victims to provide their personal particulars or transfer their money to third party bank accounts. Since January 2023, at least 23 victims have fallen prey to such scams, with reported losses amounting to at least $1.9 million.
The scam occurs in the following way:
- Members of the public would receive calls from the first scammer who pretends to be a bank officer. The first scammer would allege that the victim’s bank account(s) had transaction issues or was involved in money laundering. The first scammer would then transfer the victim’s call to a second scammer on the pretext of assisting the victim. Some of the numbers used by the scammer to call the victim were observed to be international numbers with a ‘+’ prefix.
- A second scammer would pretend to be an SPF officer. The second scammer may provide a URL link and ask the victim to fill in the victim’s personal and banking details. The victim would click on the link and would be directed to a phishing site that resembles the SPF official website. The scammer would then instruct the victim to transfer money to third party bank accounts on the pretext of investigations.
- Victims would then realise that they had been scammed when they contact the bank(s) or the Police via the official avenues to check on their cases.
Members of the public are advised to take the following precautions when they are asked to transfer funds to third party accounts for the purpose of criminal investigations:
- Ignore the request. Police officers will never (i) ask for the control of your bank accounts, money, or passwords; (ii) require you to transfer your money to another account;
- Police officers will also not make calls from international numbers. Such numbers can be identified by the ‘+’ prefix in front of the calling number.
- Check the URL of the website for tell-tale signs of a phishing site.
- Refrain from giving out personal information and bank account details to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as Internet bank account usernames and passwords, or One-Time Password codes from tokens, are useful to criminals. Do not make any fund transfer(s) 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; and
- If in doubt, call ‘999’ or approach a police officer at your nearest Neighbourhood Police Centre.
If you have information related to such cases, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. Please dial ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.
For scam-related advice, please call the National Crime Prevention Council’s Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg. 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 ACT against scams and prevent our loved ones from becoming the next victim.
Annex A
Images of the phishing site
Example of an international number used by the scammer to impersonate the Police – note that the number has a ‘+’ prefix in front
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
24 February 2023 @ 9:55 PM