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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…