Singapore police arrested 34 people and over 240 bank accounts were frozen following an island wide operation against government official impersonation scams.
The Singapore Police Force (SPF) released a statement on Tuesday, April 1, stating that raids targeting suspects who provided their bank accounts to scammers for money laundering purposes resulted in the arrest of 27 men and seven women, aged between 17 to 46.
Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department's Anti-Scam Command (ASCom) collaborated with nearby banks to track down the money that scam victims had lost during the March 17–28 operation.
The bank accounts used in the money transfer were frozen, and at least S$955,000 in alleged scam earnings were confiscated.
The police claimed that they are looking into five other people and that they collaborated with telecom firms to shut down over 700 phone lines that were connected to the scams.
The SPF said, "Investigations are ongoing into offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992, and Computer Misuse Act 1993."
"The offence of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct in certain circumstances under Section 55A(1) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 carries an imprisonment term of up to three years, or a fine not exceeding $50,000 or both," the authorities added.
The offence of unauthorised access to computer material under Section 3(1) of the Computer Misuse Act 1993 carries an imprisonment term of up to 2 years, or a fine of up to S$5,000, or both for first-time offenders.
Scammers would use phone numbers they had stolen or messaging apps to get in touch with victims in these types of government official impersonation schemes.
Some would pose as government representatives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Anti-Scam Centre (ASC), the police, or banks like DBS, Maybank, OCBC, NTUC Union, Income Insurance, and UnionPay.
According to authorities, victims who got calls from the phony bank personnel would be asked to confirm transactions they claimed to have done.
A second scammer posing as a government official would then take over the call.
In a different variation of the scam, scammers posing as Unionpay, Income Insurance, or NTUC Union staff would inform victims that they owed money on an expired or newly issued life insurance policy in their names.
After that, they would be sent to another fraudster, who would ask for personal information, including the victim's bank account data, while pretending to be confirming the details of their insurance.
The victims would be informed that, unless they cancel their policy, the unpaid payments would be automatically taken out of their bank accounts.
But in order to accomplish this, victims were offered false assurances that their money would be returned after their policies were cancelled, and they were required to confirm their bank accounts by making payments to a designated bank account.
Ultimately, victims of these scam variations would be routed to another con artist impersonating a police, ASC, or MAS official.
In order to aid in investigations, they would then be urged to transfer funds to a designated bank account after being notified that their bank accounts were linked to money laundering activities or that their personal information had been compromised.
Victims would only realize they were duped after following instructions and not receiving their returns or after the con artists stopped being reachable.
The police said that there were 1,504 government official impersonation scam cases reported in 2024, with victims losing S$151.3 million.
"To avoid being an accomplice to crime, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use their SingPass credentials, bank accounts or mobile lines, as one could be held accountable if these are linked to crimes," the police added.
The police reminded the public in their statement that government representatives would not call and request banking, SingPass, or CPF-related information, nor would they ask for money to be transferred to bank accounts.
Additionally, representatives of NTUC Union, Income Insurance, and Unionpay will never use unsolicited phone calls, emails, WhatsApp messaging, or SMS to request personal information or money to a personal bank account.
