The Police have arrested a 22-year-old man for his suspected involvement in a case of China Officials Impersonation Scam (“COIS”).
On 14 October 2022, the Police received a report that a 19-year-old woman (“the victim”) had been kidnapped. Prior to the report, the parents of the victim, who were based in China, received a video of the victim with her hands and legs tied up and mouth taped shut. The video was accompanied with a ransom demand from an unknown person communicating in Mandarin.
Following the report, officers from Tanglin Police Division, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Intelligence Department and Commercial Affairs Department conducted extensive follow up investigations and tracked down the victim on 14 October 2022, who turned out to be a victim of a COIS. The victim was eventually found to be safe and sound in a flat in Woodlands, rented by the 22-year-old man, who was later traced and arrested.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the victim had received an unsolicited call from a Ministry of Health (MOH) officer. The scammer alleged that the victim had a parcel detained at the customs which contained illegal COVID-19 medicine. The victim was then routed to another scammer masquerading as the “China Police”, for investigations. The scammer further alleged that a bank card in the victim’s name was found to be involved in money laundering activities in China, and that the banking facilities belonging to her and her family would be frozen as a result. The scammer then suggested that the victim could transfer money for her case to be expedited. Under such ruse, the victim was allegedly deceived into transferring $170,000 as “security deposit” to a bank account controlled by the scammer. The scammer had also instructed the victim to take a video of herself with her hands and legs bounded to pretend that she had been captured. The victim was told that the video would be used for their investigations to lure and arrest the syndicate members. On 13 October 2022, the scammer instructed the victim to isolate herself and cease communication with others to facilitate their investigations.
Follow-up investigations revealed that the 22-year-old man had purportedly acted on the scammer’s instructions to rent the room for the victim, and had handed over a SIM card for the victim to use for communication with the scammer. Police investigations are ongoing.
From January 2022 to September 2022, a total of 548 COIS cases were reported, with losses amounting to at least $67.9 million. The Police would like to highlight that the China Police, INTERPOL and other overseas law enforcement agencies (LEAs) have no jurisdiction to conduct operations in Singapore, arrest anyone, or ask members of the public to help with any form of investigations without the approval of the Singapore Government. The Police take a serious view against any person who may be involved in scams, whether knowingly or unwittingly, and they would be dealt with severely in accordance with the law.
The Police would also like to advise members of the public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties, especially those with the “+” prefix which originate overseas:
- Ignore such calls and the caller’s instructions. No government agency will instruct payment through a telephone call or other social messaging platforms (WeChat or Facebook) or ask you for personal banking information such as your internet banking passwords.
- For foreigners receiving calls from persons claiming to be from Police in your home country, call your Embassy / High Commission to verify the claims of the caller.
- Refrain from giving out your personal information and bank details, whether on websites or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals.
- Do not make any funds transfer if the caller is of dubious identity.
- Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. You may be overwhelmed by emotions and err in your judgement.
- If in doubt, always hang up the call and check with the Singapore Police Force.
If you have any information related to such crime, please call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or dial ‘999’ for urgent Police assistance.
To seek scam-related advice, members of the public may call the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688 or go to www.scamalert.sg. Do share this advisory with your family and friends to prevent them from being the next scam victim.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
18 October 2022 @ 11:10 AM