The Police would like to alert members of the public to remain vigilant against investment scams propagated through fake social media advertisements or posts purportedly endorsed by Singapore Political Office Holders.
In this scam variant, victims would come across investment advertisements or posts on social media platforms (e.g. Facebook), including investments into cryptocurrencies. The content would misrepresent that notable public figures, including Singapore Political Office Holders, had endorsed these “investment opportunities”. Victims who clicked on the embedded links were redirected to phishing websites to provide their contact information. Subsequently, scammers would contact the victims via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) calls or messaging platforms (e.g. WhatsApp or Telegram) to provide more information about the purported “investment opportunities”. The victims would be directed to fraudulent trading platforms and prompted to provide their personal particulars, such as contact and credit card details, to register for an account. The victims would then receive phone calls or messages from scammers posing as staff from investment companies or brokers. The scammers would guide the victims on the investments and provide instructions on how to transfer monies for the investments.
Most victims realised that they had been scammed when they could not withdraw their “profits” despite transferring increasingly large sums of “fees incurred” for the “investment”. In other cases, scammers became uncontactable.
Members of the public are strongly advised to be cautious when responding to investment advertisements and to adopt the following precautionary measures:
- ADD – Scamshield and set security features (e.g. activate the privacy function on your device which disallows unknown users from adding you into chatgroups).
- CHECK - for scam signs with official sources or websites. You can check the legitimacy of suspicious messages, phone numbers and website links via the ScamShield app or visit the ScamShield website at www.scamshield.gov.sg. Verify the authenticity of the investment company by:
- Asking as many questions as needed to understand the investment opportunities. If the company is unable to answer or avoids answering any questions, be wary;
- Checking on the company, its owners, directors, and management members to assess if the investment opportunities are genuine; and
- Confirming the company’s and representatives’ credentials by using available resources, including the Financial Institutions Directory, Register of Representatives, and Investor Alert List on the MAS’ website (www.mas.gov.sg).
- Checking that applications installed on your phone are legitimate by seeing if they are available on official application stores.
- TELL - authorities, family, and friends about scams. Report any fraudulent transactions to your bank immediately.
If you are in doubt, call the 24/7 ScamShield Helpline at 1799 to check. For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamshield.gov.sg. Fighting scams is a community effort. Together, we can ACT Against Scams to safeguard our community!
Annex: Screenshots of Fake Websites, Facebook Advertisments and Posts
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
20 April 2025 @ 10:35 AM