PUBLISHED ONNovember 18, 2021 6:26 AMByAmierul RashidA woman felt suspicious after the 'police officer' calling her with a '+65' prefix was having trouble spelling his own name.
The almost three-minute-long video of their conversation was uploaded on Facebook on Wednesday (Nov 17). It has since amassed over 106,000 views and 300 comments.
"Please tell me you are using Mastercard, Visa card, or normal card. Which one you are using? [sic]" the caller asked. "No, no. You are calling from where?" was the reply the caller received.
The caller claimed to be from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) but the woman, who was responding to this call in a vehicle, was not buying it and asked for his name.
As the caller pronounced his Chinese-sounding name, his South Asian accent made the attempt rather unconvincing.
In an effort to add legitimacy to his case, the caller said: "You need my ID? I can give you my Singaporean police ID photo. No need to worry sister."
The woman then demanded that the 'police officer' spell out his name.
The caller tried to do so but his voice fades off soon after and the woman said: "Because this is a Chinese name but you sound Indian and you sound [from] overseas."
Eventually, in the video, she hangs up the phone on him.
In August, the Singapore Police Force released an advisory on the re-emergence of government official impersonation scam, where scammers pose as police officers and even present a fake SPF warrant card.
In this video, the scammer mentioned that he could text the necessary identification details if the caller was unsure of its credibility.
Also, he impersonated Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigation & Intelligence) Florence Chua — the first woman to hold that post — by using her photograph as his profile picture.
Between January and June this year, crime numbers in Singapore are on a yearly rise and this increase is largely influenced by scam cases.
For phone calls, keep a look out for the '+65' prefix which indicates an overseas call. Though it has Singapore's country code, a domestic call would not display this prefix.
To seek scam-related advice, call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688, or visit the Scam Alert website.
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