PUBLISHED ONApril 25, 2026 2:30 AMBYSean LerTwo Singaporean teenagers, aged 16 and 19, and a 19-year-old Malaysian were arrested for their alleged involvement in a business e-mail compromise (BEC) scam which saw a US remitter lost US$2.89 million (S$3.7 million).
BEC is a sophisticated scam involving the impersonation of trusted leaders to trick employees into sending money or data. Unlike mass phishing emails, scammers would conduct research into their targets and send them convincing requests, or even target executives directly. This is also known as "whaling".
In a news release on Friday (April 24) night, police said the trio had worked with a Malaysia-based scam syndicate to set up shell companies between March and April this year.
They added that the trio also opened an unspecified number of DBS corporate bank accounts to facilitate the receipt of scam proceeds.
A US fund remitter was later duped via BEC into transferring the $3.7 million into the corporate account(s).
The matter came to light when DBS staff noticed an account holder's attempt to withdraw US$2.56 million after another US$330,000 were earlier transferred to overseas bank accounts.
Upon suspecting fraudulent activity, the DBS staff alerted the police of the suspicious activity. Officers from the police's Anti-Scam Command also contacted Interpol, which, in turn, notified the remitter of the scam.
The corporate bank account holder was arrested on Thursday after follow-up investigations conducted by the police. His two accomplices were also arrested the same day.
Both 19-year-olds will be charged in court on Saturday with the offence of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct.
Meanwhile, investigations against the 16-year-old is still ongoing.
If found guilty of the said offence, the duo could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000, or both.
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