$2 million from scams recovered, 121 local bank accounts frozen

SINGAPORE – The police have frozen 121 local bank accounts and recovered about $2 million lost by victims in phishing scams targeting OCBC Bank customers as at Sunday (Feb 13), said Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan.

Providing an update on the ongoing investigations into the OCBC phishing scams which took place last December, Mr Tan also said that about $2.2 million of victims’ funds have been traced to 89 overseas bank accounts.

“Many of the scam websites used in the phishing scams were hosted by web hosting companies based overseas,” said Mr Tan, who chairs the Inter-Ministry Committee on Scams (IMCS) set up in April 2020.

Specifically, at least 107 local and 171 overseas Internet protocol (IP) addresses were linked to the unauthorised access of the victims’ internet banking accounts.

He was replying MPs Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC), Sitoh Yih Pin (Potong Pasir SMC) and Dennis Tan (Hougang SMC), who asked for an update in Parliament on the ongoing investigations into the OCBC phishing scams.

The police have commenced investigations into the local IP addresses linked to the scams and the owners of the local money mule accounts.

The police are also working with Interpol and foreign law enforcement agencies to investigate the beneficiaries of the funds transferred overseas and the hosts of the scam websites.

Mr Tan was not able to divulge more information as investigations were still ongoing.

But he…