THERE has been no let up from phone scammers despite police warnings and reminders to the public.
Police said on Monday that they have received several reports of phone scams in the first three months of this year.

These fraudsters use the telephone number of a police department or courts which would appear in the caller ID of the victim's phones, when no such calls were made from those agencies in the first place. These numbers include: 63381034 (Sub Court Enquiry Hotline), 64350000 (CID Hotline) and 999 (Police).

Some of the swindlers use the 'kidnap scam' to trick their victims into transferring money into a bank account, by alleging that their next-of-kin was kidnapped and would be harmed if money was not transferred to the caller's bank account. The allegations were untrue and no one was kidnapped.

Other scammers impersonated Supreme Court staff or police officers to con the victims. They would claim that the victims were involved in criminal cases or court hearings and were directed to transfer money into a bank account to exonerate themselves from these cases.

In reality, the victims were not involved in any such criminal or court proceedings. In August and October last year, Police had warned the public of such phone scams.

Police investigations of these cases are ongoing. Police said that while it is normal during the course of police work for investigators to inform members of the public over the phone on court dates and appointments at the police station for police statements to be taken, they would never ask for money to be deposited into a bank account.

What you should do if you get a scam call
The public is advised to be wary when receiving such phone calls. Cheating scams may take different forms but these scams are all designed to cheat victims into parting with their money.

When in doubt, the public is advised to verify the caller's identity with the agency or organisation the caller claims to be from, even if the caller ID appears to belong to the agency or organisation.

Remain calm and call the police immediately if they are approached in a similar manner.

Phone scams on the rise
Practically unheard of in 2006, cheating scams via phone calls claimed on average one victim a day last year and netted a total $4.6 million for the perpetrators. This is an area of concern for the police.

Phone scams contributed to last year's 10.4 per cent increase in commercial crimes. During the year, con men took advantage of victims' gullibility and used lottery or lucky draw scams to cheat 325 victims of between $200 and $350,000, supposedly the 'advance fee' to release the prizes.

Then, in August, mystery callers claimed victims' family members had been kidnapped and would be harmed unless a ransom was paid. Four victims were cheated of more than $80,000.

In September, con men masquerading as police or court officers would urge victims to remit money so as to 'close' investigations into crimes they never committed in the first place. The 49 people conned lost between $1,000 and $50,000, and the total was more than $500,000.