Beware of scammers pretending to be your friend!

SINGAPORE: A recent trend among scammers involves them pretending to be their victim’s friend and asking for financial assistance. The Singapore Police Force said that there have been at least 1,300 victims of this particular scam since the beginning of the year, with total losses of at least $4.33 million.

The Police have called this a variant of the “fake friend” scam, where scammers reach out to victims via WhatsApp messages or texts, or phone or WhatsApp calls, and pretend that they are someone that the victim knows.

“Be wary of someone calling you and asking you to ‘guess’ their identity!,” the Police wrote in an advisory on Mar 17, adding that the calls may or may not have the +65 (Singapore) prefix.

After the initial contact, the fake friend then asks the person to guess his identity, and then asks the victim to update his contact details, claiming to have a new number.

The scammer then follows this up with a call a few days later asking for a loan, saying he’s having financial problems or issues with banking transactions, and giving bank account details for money transfers.

“Beware of unusual requests received from phone calls or messes, even if they appear to be from your family or friends. Verify whether the request is legitimate by checking with your family and friends through alternative means such as physical meet-ups, video calls or email.”

Earlier this week, three Malaysian men were extradited to Singapore due to their involvement in such a scam.

The men, whose ages range between 18 and 27, were arrested during a raid at a Johor apartment complex on March 20, in a joint operation by Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department and the Royal Malaysia Police’s Johor Commercial Crime Investigation Department.

These men are believed to have started their fake friend scams at the beginning of the year and are allegedly part of 0 reports with total losses of over S$250,000, the police said in a news release this week.

The three men were charged in court on March 30 with conspiracy to cheat under Section 420 read with Section 108B of the Penal Code 1871, and if convicted, may end up in jail for up to three years or fined

“Fake Friend Call Scams are on the rise and this is a serious concern. The Singapore Police Force has been working closely with the Royal Malaysia Police to detect and arrest these transnational syndicates who prey on our citizens,” said Mr David Chew, the director of the Singapore Police Force Commercial Affairs Department.

On Friday (Mar 31), the Police released an advisory on the trending scams this past week.

/TISG

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