Singapore company almost loses over S$300K in impersonation scam

SINGAPORE: A local company narrowly avoided losing over S$300,000 after an employee fell for a scam in which fraudsters pretended to be one of the company’s suppliers.

The Straits Times reported that on Jan 7, the product trading company employee received an email from the scammer, who changed the real supplier’s email address by replacing “gmail.com” with “asia.com.” The scammer then asked for payment to be sent to a new bank account in the UAE, according to the police’s press release on Feb 3.

Not noticing the change in the email address, the employee transferred over S$300,000 to the fraudulent bank account.

She realised the scam on Jan 14, after the real supplier confirmed it hadn’t changed its bank details, and made a police report the next day.

Neither the company nor the employee was named in the release.

Fortunately, the police’s Anti-Scam Command, working with the UAE authorities and Interpol, recovered the full amount, which was returned to the company.

In 2024, scam cases rose by 16.3 per cent, with victims losing over S$385.6 million in the first half of the year. While investment scams accounted for just 12.5 per cent of all scam cases, they caused the highest financial loss, with victims losing S$133.4 million, according to the police’s midyear scam and cyber-crime report from August 2024. /TISG

Read also: 189 people under investigation for suspected involvement in S$6.65M loss from 1,000 scam cases

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