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There has been a resurgence of a variant of government official impersonation scams in Singapore, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a news release on Oct. 21.

In this scam variant, scammers would impersonate SPF officers to convince victims to transfer their monies to third party bank accounts.

In October 2022, SPF said that there were at least 24 victims with total losses amounting to at least S$1.5 million.

The largest sum lost by a single victim was at least S$199,000.

How the victims were scammed

1. Receive calls from purported bank officers

According to SPF, members of the public would receive calls from purported bank officers seeking confirmation if they had purchased a high-value branded bag from Changi Airport with their credit card.

When the victim denied possessing such a credit card or making the purchase, the scammer would inform them that the bank would investigate the unauthorised transactions.

The victim would also be advised to lodge a police report.

2. Transferred to second scammer impersonating SPF officer

The victim would subsequently be transferred to another scammer to assist them in lodging the "police report".

The second scammer would impersonate an SPF officer and direct the victim to send a WhatsApp message to begin lodging a police report.

After the victim initiates contact with the second scammer via WhatsApp, they would receive an image of a forged SPF warrant card with the purported officer's name to gain their trust.

The scammer would then ask the victim to provide their personal and bank details, including bank account balances and their credit card number(s), to lodge the police report.

Subsequently, the scammer would send the victim a forged police report via WhatsApp.

The scammer would also inform the victim that they were linked to a financial crime investigation and would be required to contact the investigation officer at a given contact number.

3. Told to contact third scammer pretending to be investigation officer

Upon contacting the third scammer masquerading as the investigation officer, the victim would be advised to transfer their monies into a safe

account to prove their innocence.

The victim would be reassured that the monies would be returned to them after 48 hours.

Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when they have contacted their bank or the police via the official avenues to check on their cases.

How to spot a scam

SPF advised the public to take the following precautions when they are asked to transfer funds to third party accounts for the purpose of criminal investigations:

• Ignore the request. Real Police officers will never ask for the control of your bank accounts, monies or passwords. Real police officers will also not request that you to transfer your monies to another account, neither will they identify themselves by sending an image of the SPF warrant card over online platforms.
• Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details, such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, or One-Time Password (OTP) codes from tokens, are useful to criminals. Do not make any fund transfer(s) at the behest of such callers.
• Call a trusted friend or talk to a relative before you act. Do not be pressured by the caller to act impulsively.
• If in doubt, call '999' or approach a police office at a neighbourhood police centre near you.

If you have information related to such cases, SPF urges you to call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online here.

All information will be kept strictly confidential.

If you require urgent police assistance, you can dial ‘999’.

For scam-related advice, you can call the anti-scam hotline at 1800-722-6688 or visit this site.

Top images via SPF & Unsplash.