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SINGAPORE: The police’s Anti-Scam Centre was set up to tackle scams, but fraudsters are now posing as officers from the agency, with at least two victims losing at least S$73,000 (RM254,398) to this scam variant since January.
In a statement on May 27, the police warned against a government official impersonation scam where scammers would claim to be from the Anti-Scam Centre.
Victims would receive robocalls from local mobile numbers, which would inform them that they are being investigated and need to report to Police Cantonment Complex for an interview.
They would then be told to dial “0” to speak to an “operator”.
The scammers would ask for personal details before transferring the call to another fraudster pretending to be a police investigation officer.
The second scammer would then contact the victim through a WhatsApp call.
The police said victims of such scams could be deceived into providing their personal details, including their bank account details or Singpass password, believing it to be necessary to assist in investigations.
This information could then be used to access victims’ bank accounts to enable unauthorised transactions or create new accounts for criminal transactions, despite the bank accounts being registered under the victims’ names.
Citing previous cases where victims were told to transfer money to a bank account to assist in financial investigations, the police said they would never ask for people’s personal information over the phone or social messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
They would also not ask people to transfer money to a bank account to assist in investigations.
Reiterating that personal details should not be divulged to unknown individuals without confirming their identity, Singapore police advised people to download the ScamShield app, and also check for possible signs of scams with official sources such as the Anti-Scam Helpline, among other precautions. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network
