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The Singapore Police Force (SPF) have arrested eight men for their suspected involvement in two separate series of Ponzi-like job scams.

The police said on Sunday, March 20 that the arrests were made during anti-scam enforcement operations conducted between March 8 and 18.

Men arrested

Five men, aged 18 to 26, were arrested between March 8 and 18.

Three other men, aged 26 to 30, were nabbed on March 17 and 18.

Investigations into both series of scams are ongoing.

First raid

The five men arrested in the first enforcement operation are suspected of carrying out Ponzi-like job scams involving an e-commerce affiliate business (EAB).

Another two men and seven women, aged between 18 and 72, are also being investigated for their suspected involvement in the job scams.

What this scam entailed

Between December 2021 and March 2022, the police received reports about victims receiving unsolicited WhatsApp messages and Facebook or Telegram posts with advertisements promoting highly paid part-time affiliate marketing related jobs.

The victims were required to complete easy tasks.

These involved making online purchases as part of the fake online jobs offered by the scammers.

The victims were then directed to recruit more members to upgrade their membership status.

If they did this, they can perform more job tasks and earn their commission.

Those who fell prey did so as they thought they were doing a legitimate job, as they would receive commissions and profit during the early stage of their memberships.

When further commissions did not materialise or when victims were unable to make withdrawals from their member accounts, they realised they have been scammed.

The Ponzi-like schemes worked by using new job seekers’ money to pay the promised commissions to existing job holders, early investigations showed.

Islandwide operations

Officers from the SPF Commercial Affairs Department conducted simultaneous islandwide operations and arrested the five men in the 11-day operation.

The other two men and seven women were traced and investigated for their suspected involvement in the EAB-related job scams.

Four of the men involved allegedly allowed their Singpass login details and their own bank accounts to be used by unknown people "for easy money" to facilitate the schemes, the police said.

The syndicate used the Sinpass details to open corporate bank accounts that were used to launder proceeds of cheating.

Scammers would change the URLs for the EAB website to continue to perpetrate the job scams, investigations noted.

The four men will be charged in court on March 21 with the offence of disclosing their Singpass login details under the Computer Misuse Act.

They can be fined up to S$10,000, jailed for up to three years, or both if convicted as first-time offenders.

Investigations against the other three men and seven women are ongoing.

Second raid

The three men arrested in the second operation allegedly used a multi-level marketing strategy to carry out a series of scams.

The scams related to a bogus company that purportedly ran a Ponzi-like scheme.

Simultaneous islandwide raids on March 17 and 18 led to three men. being arrested.

Police informed

On March 17, the police received information about an emerging job scam platform.

Users received unsolicited messages on Telegram, Facebook or Instagram posts, or came across online advertisements promoting highly paid affiliate marketing related jobs.

The job scam portal claimed it was in the business of providing marketing services for major e-commerce websites, improving the popularity and sales for shopping websites, and solving the problem of low footfall on shopping websites.

It also claimed to have created more than 5,000 jobs in nine countries,

Modus operandi similar

The modus operandi was similar to the other scam.

Job seekers, as part of the fake jobs, were tasked to complete easy assignments such as making purchases with various e-commerce companies.

In order to perform the job and earn a commission, the job seekers were directed to websites provided by the scammers to sign up for free membership accounts.

The platform provided additional rebates to existing member who recruited new members, as well as when a certain number of tasks were achieved by the existing member or the newly recruited members.

To start performing the job to earn commissions, the job seekers would be asked to top up their account maintained on the platform.

Cryptocurrency was used to perform the all top-up and withdrawal transactions.

Those who fell prey did so as they thought they were doing a legitimate job, as they would receive commissions and profit during the early stage of their memberships.

As with the previous scam, when further commissions did not materialise or when victims were unable to make withdrawals from their member accounts, they realised they have been scammed.

Penalties

The offence of fraud by false representation of position not connected with contracts for goods and services carries a jail term of up to 20 years, a fine, or both.

The police warned against making upfront payments to secure job offers and earn commissions or utilising one's own bank account on behalf of businesses.

Members of the public should always reject requests to use their personal bank or cryptocurrency accounts to receive and transfer money for others, the police added.

All photos via Singapore Police Force

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