Attention, new scam!: Fake government officials trick victims into fraud, S$252,000 losses from five reports this month

SINGAPORE: A new way of fraud has been discovered when scammers are reported to be impersonating government officials to lure victims into borrowing money from licensed lenders. Once they have fallen for the trick, the victims will transfer the funds, resulting in a loss of their savings and having incurred debt.

In a recent report from 8world News, the authorities said that victims will first receive calls from strangers who impersonate representatives of telecommunication companies, and claim that the victims have signed service contracts, registered new SIM cards, or even purchased new phones. This call will then be transferred to another scammer, who will now impersonate a government official and will accuse the victims of criminal doings.

With this, the scammer will instruct the victims to apply for a loan from a licensed sender. This will lead to the victims transferring money through bank transfer or depositing cash at an ATM into a ‘safe account’. Unfortunately, victims will only learn that they have been scammed when the scammers have already disappeared, or when they have verified the transactions with the relevant government agencies. 

This month alone, the police have received at least five related reports, and the total amount of losses amounted to at least S$252,000. 

To avoid these fraudulent activities, the police are reminding the public not to transfer money to unidentified strangers. The authorities reminded everyone that Singapore government officials will never ask the public for money, nor will they ask the people to disclose their online banking information. 

More so, it is important to know that real government officials will not ask the public to download mobile applications from unofficial app stores or transfer calls to the police or other government officials.

Other related news 

In similar reports related to scams, the monthly anti-fraud report of the police stated that there were more than 3,000 reports of fraud last month, with victims suffering a total loss of $66.9 million. 

Police pointed out that the victims of these fraud incidents are invited to join WhatsApp chat groups after seeing advertisements for free investment courses on social media. Once the victims join the group chat, scammers will impersonate experts and share investment advice. 

Read more about the news report here.