Two women aged 19 and 30 have been arrested by Singapore police for their suspected involvement in a China Officials Impersonation Scam (COIS).

COIS typically entails typically involve scammers pretending to be officers from government organisations, informing victims of the following:

• A mobile number registered in their name was involved in a crime
• A parcel under their name containing illegal goods was detained
• There was a pending case in court against them; and/or
• They had committed a criminal offence and were required to assist in investigations

Instructed victim to hand over money via phone calls

For this case, a female victim was swindled out of more than S$1 million in cash over a period of five days, after being led to believe that she was being investigated for a serious crime.

The scammers had pretended to be Chinese authorities over unsolicited phone calls, and instructucted the victim to hand over the money to a woman.

Through investigations, officers from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) established the identity of the 19-year-old woman and arrested her on the same day of the report.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the 19-year-old is believed to have acted on the instruction of the scammers to collect the cash from the victim.

The cash was allegedly handed over to another woman, aged 30, who was also arrested on the same day.

Investigations against the 19-year-old woman are ongoing.

The 30-year-old woman will be charged in court on Oct. 30, 2020 with assisting another person to retain benefits from criminal conduct.

Her alleged crime falls under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Offences (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, which carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years, or a fine of up to S$500,000, or both.

The police warns members of the public not to collect money from other individuals on the behalf of unknown persons, especially those claiming to be officers from law enforcement agencies.

Such callers are most likely scammers, and those who act on the scammers' instructions may unwittingly committed a crime by assisting in money laundering operations.

If in doubt, members of the public can call the National Crime Prevention Council’s anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.

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Top image by Julia Yeo