$52k lost to scammers impersonating MHA officers since September

Victims have lost about $52,000 to scammers impersonating Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officers since September this year.

There have been at least seven cases of such scams, said the police in a news release on Friday (Nov 7).

In this scam variant, victims would first receive unsolicited calls from scammers posing as representatives from a bank.

These scammers would claim that a credit card had been found under the victim's name, or that transactions had been made using a credit card supposedly belonging to them, according to the police.

Upon denying this, the victim would be transferred to another scammer impersonating an officer from MHA who would accuse them of being involved in criminal activities such as money laundering — even presenting them with fake official documents in some cases.

These documents included a "warrant of arrest", a "notice of investigation" and a "court hearing appointment”, said the police.

The scammers would subsequently instruct the victims to make monetary transactions "for investigation purposes". 

This may involve transferring funds via PayNow — like scanning a YouTrip QR code, for instance — handing over valuables such as gold to unknown persons, or performing cryptocurrency-related transfers, according to the police.

Victims would eventually realise that they had been scammed when these "officers" became uncontactable.

Addressing members of the public, the police stated that Singapore government officials, including those from MHA, will never ask them to transfer money, gold or crypto-currency, disclose bank login details or install mobile apps from unofficial app stores, over the phone.

Officials would also never transfer calls to the police or a MHA officer, they said.

The police encouraged members of the public to visit www.scamshield.gov.sg for more information on scams.

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bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com