The Singapore police are investigating five women and seven men, aged between 18 and 46, following recent reports of extortion letters with doctored obscene photos of victims.

Received or promised commissions

Those arrested allegedly provided bank accounts and SIM cards that were used to commit a series of extortion.

The bank accounts and SIM cards were allegedly obtained through illegal means, said the police.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the 12 persons had purportedly received or were promised commissions.

During the operation, at least S$115,000 in suspected criminal proceeds, some of which were purportedly linked to other scam cases, were recovered and an array of electronic devices were seized.

Victims' photos publicly sourced

Between March and April 2024, more than 170 reports were lodged by victims who received extortionary letters via post containing manipulated photographs.

The images showed publicly sourced pictures of the victims’ faces superimposed on obscene photographs of a man and a woman purportedly in an intimate and compromising position.

The letters warned of threatening consequences, unless the victims contacted the email address provided in the letters.

One victim responded to threat

In one of the reports, a 50-year-old victim suffered a loss of S$20,000 after responding to the email address and transferred the money to a bank account allegedly provided by the other party.

A two-week operation by the police established the 12 persons allegedly involved in either procuring bank accounts for criminal activities or facilitated or assisted in the unauthorised access of Singpass accounts, or purchased and relinquished local SIM cards, which were obtained through illegal means.

All of this was alleged to have been facilitating the criminal activities of overseas scam syndicates.

A 23-year-old woman will be charged in court on May 2 with the offence of facilitating unauthorised access to computer material under the Computer Misuse Act 1993.

She could be jailed up to two years, fined, or both.

Background

A number of Members of Parliament (MPs) in Singapore were among those who received extortion letters with manipulated photos recently.

Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, as well as MPs Tan Wu Meng and Edward Chia said on Apr. 20 that they got the letters and had lodged police reports.

Top photo via Singapore Police Force