17-year-old girl among 3 more suspects arrested for bulk order impersonation scams

A 17-year-old girl was arrested along with two men, aged 21 and 28, for bulk order scams involving the impersonation of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) personnel, the police said on Friday (Sept 19).

The arrests were made after the Commercial Affairs Department's Anti-Scam Command and Central Police Division conducted simultaneous raids around Bukit Batok West, Fernvale Lane, and Northshore Drive from Sept 18 to 19.

Preliminary investigations found that the trio were allegedly acting on instructions from a scam syndicate.

The 28-year-old man had allegedly relinquished his Singpass credentials to the syndicate for monetary gains.

Meanwhile, the teenager and 21-year-old man assisted unknown individuals to subscribe to phone lines, some of which were found to be linked to the bulk order scams.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Those who disclose their Singpass credentials to facilitate an offence may face an imprisonment term of up to three years, or fine, or both. 

The offence of knowingly providing a fraudulently registered SIM card to another person carries a $10,000 fine or jail term not exceeding three years, or both.

On Tuesday (Sept 16), a 16-year-old boy was arrested along with a 22-year-old woman and 31-year-old man for bulk order scams. The woman was charged on Wednesday (Sept 17).

The first known incident of bulk order scams came to light on Sept 9 when a Tiong Bahru biryani stall owner shared that he received a fake order of 150 packets of food by a person claiming to be a "SAF representative".

Since then, a Bukit Timah florist, Novena nasi lemak stall and Thomson Road bakery have also been affected by similar bulk order scams.

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jengjee.hoon@asiaone.com