SINGAPORE: The police warned on Friday (Feb 24) of the return of a variant of scam involving the impersonation of government officials, particularly police officers.
In these cases, 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, at least 23 victims have fallen for such scams, suffering losses amounting to at least S$1.9 million.
Typically in such scams, a member of the public would receive calls from a scammer pretending to be a bank officer, alleging that their bank account had transaction issues or was involved in money laundering.
The call would then be transferred to a second scammer posing as an SPF officer on the pretext of assisting the victim.
Some of the numbers used by scammers to call their victims were international numbers with a “+” prefix.
After providing a URL link, the second scammer would ask the victim to fill in their personal and banking details on a phishing site resembling the official website of the police force.
The scammer would then instruct the victim to transfer money to third party bank accounts on the pretext of investigations.
Victims would realise that they had been scammed when they contacted the bank or the police via official channels to check on their cases.
The police reiterated its officers will never ask for the control of bank accounts, money or passwords or require one to transfer money to another account. Those who face such requests should ignore it.
Police officers will also not make calls from international numbers, which can be identified by the “+” prefix in front of the calling number.
One should also check the provided URL link for tell-tale signs of a phishing site, and refrain from giving out personal and banking details 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,” said the police.
“Do not make any fund transfers at the behest of such callers.”
Talking to a trusted friend to a relative before acting can also help. Do not be pressured by the caller to act impulsively, and if in doubt, call 999 or contact an officer, said SPF.
Those with information on such scams can call the police hotline at 1800 255 0000 or submit it online via the iWitness form.
The National Crime Prevention Council’s Anti-Scam Hotline can be reached for scam-related advice at 1800 722 6688. Alternatively, one can go to www.scamalert.sg.