Victim loses over S$1.1 million to scammers impersonating MAS officials

SINGAPORE: A man in Singapore lost more than S$1.1 million to scammers who had posed as government officials earlier this month. The victim had been told by the scammers to surrender his funds and valuables for investigative purposes, the police said in a media release on Sunday (Oct 26).

After he filed a police report on Oct 22, the police carried out an islandwide anti-scam enforcement operation from Oct 23 to 24. This resulted in the arrest of 24 people who are said to have been involved in the Government Officials Impersonation Scam (GOIS) that the man fell victim to.

These suspects are between the ages of 15 and 34, and nine other, between the ages of 16 and 70, are under investigation.

S$1.1 million GOIS scam

The victim first received an unsolicited call from a person who said they were working for the telecommunications company M1. The caller claimed the victim had a current mobile plan contract with the company, which he denied. Upon hearing of this denial, the caller said they could help the victim with terminating the contract but told him that the issue would be referred to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for an investigation into an information leak.

Following this, individuals who claimed that they were officers from MAS contacted the victim. They told him that a bank account bearing his name had been frozen, adding that he now needed to safeguard all his money and assets.

In order to do this, he was directed by the fake MAS officers to take a number of steps, including buying gold bars worth approximately S$350,000 and then giving them to an unknown woman on two separate occasions. He also transferred around S$124,900 worth of cryptocurrency to different wallets, over S$600,000 through over 60 YouTrip QR codes. Finally, he was also asked to transfer approximately $26,500 to a PayNow number linked to a local bank account.

According to the police, the bank had reached out to the victim at least twice when suspicious transfers were flagged for verification. The scammers, however, coached the victim concerning what to say to the bank, advising him to tell the bank that he intended to use the money he was transferring for gifts and investments.

However, when a second attempt was made to transfer funds to the PayNow account after S$26,500 had already been transferred, OCBC noted the suspicious transaction patterns and informed the Anti-Scam Centre, which in turn reached out to the victim. The victim was then persuaded that he had indeed been scammed.

“Intensive funds tracing revealed that the funds within the YouTrip accounts were mostly withdrawn at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) located overseas within the same day. In some YouTrip accounts, the funds were depleted through online transfers or payments,” the police said.

The police advised the public to avoid transferring or handing funds or valuables to unknown people or those whose identity they could not verify, and to avoid placing these somewhere for later collection. No one should ever share their device screens with someone they do not know.

Singapore government officials, including those from MAS, will never ask members of the public to do the following things over the phone:

• Ask you to transfer money;
• Ask you to disclose banking login details;
• Ask you to install mobile apps from unofficial app stores; or
• Transfer your call to Police,” the statement added.

More information concerning scams may be found here, or the public can call the ScamShield Helpline at 1799. Individuals with information on scams may also call the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/i-witness. This information will be kept strictly confidential. /TISG

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