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The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a press release on Sunday (Feb. 19) that it has crippled a scam syndicate allegedly involved in fake friend call scam operations targeting Singaporean victims.

This comes after a joint transnational operation by Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Johor Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) of the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP).

Syndicate allegedly involved in 360 reports

On Jan. 10, 2023, officers from the CCID conducted simultaneous raids at three apartment complexes in Johor, SPF said.

The raids were a culmination of collaboration and intelligence sharing between SPF and RMP, which allowed the authorities to locate the criminal syndicate in Malaysia.

One female and 11 male Malaysians, aged between 16 and 27, were arrested for their suspected involvement in the scam operation.

According to SPF, preliminary investigations revealed that the syndicate began operations in December 2022.

They used Singapore prepaid SIM cards to make calls to unsuspecting victims in Singapore.

"The syndicate is believed to be involved in more than 360 reports, with total losses of more than $1.3 million", the police said.

Investigations against the arrested individuals are ongoing.

14 arrested for abetting

At the same time, 12 men and 2 women, aged between 18 and 46, were placed under arrest or investigation by the Singapore Police Force for their suspected involvement in aiding the criminal syndicate.

The individuals are suspected to have handed over their personal bank accounts or relinquished their SingPass accounts to allow the syndicate to launder criminal proceeds, according to the police.

Investigations against these 14 individuals are ongoing.

Speaking on the arrests, Director of CAD, David Chew, commented that scams are a "serious and persistent crime", and syndicates will continue to adapt their approach to get around controls that have been put in place.

"Apart from working on robust up-stream measures to disrupt the criminals’ lines of communication, the Singapore Police Force will continue to collaborate with our foreign law enforcement counterparts to detect and deter these transnational syndicates who prey on our citizens", Chew said.

How fake friend call scam works

As reported by The Straits Times (ST), the police described the fake friend call scam as involving a scammer calling up the victim from an unknown number and pretending to be a friend or acquaintance.

The caller would ask questions like "can you guess who I am?" or "you can't remember me?", prompting the victim to guess the identity of the caller, thinking it was a friend that was calling.

The scammer would then assume the identity of the victim's friend, claim to have lost or changed their mobile phone number, and concoct reasons to ask for money.

According to the police statement on Sunday, more than 490 victims have fallen prey to the fake friend call scam, with losses amounting to at least S$1.7 million in total.

Top image via SPF, Wikimedia Commons