Scammers Posed as Officials from S’pore High Court & Interpol Officials; Over S$3.9m Lost in 4 Months

Imagine this:

You open up WhatsApp expecting to see a heart emoji from your partner only to find a message from a man from Interpol.

The man says he’s an officer and that he’s contacting you because you’re being investigated for money laundering activities.

Other than changing your pants, what would you do?

Well, if you follow the officer’s orders, you would be the victim of a scam.

Scammers Posed as Officials from S’pore High Court & Interpol Officials; Over S$3.9m Lost in 4 Months

More than 40 reports have been lodged with the police this year of a new scam where swindlers pose as officials from the Singapore High Court or Interpol asking for payments to settle fabricated offences.

In total, the victims have lost more than S$3.9 million from January to April this year.

This is how the scam worked:

The swindlers would send messages via WhatsApp or Line informing them that they were being investigated for money laundering activities.

The victims were then referred to an ‘”Interpol officer” called Eric Wong Teng Hui. To legitimise their claims, they also sent a photo of a fake Interpol international police pass.

In some instances, the swindlers posed as officials from the Singapore High Court.

The scammers also sent a letter purportedly from the Singapore Police Force signed off by Inspector Yong Tian Ming.

Now, you’re probably thinking, Who would fall for such a scam?

But the swindlers knew what they were doing. To frighten their victims into obeying their orders, they included the victims’ names and addresses on the fabricated police letter.

They then asked the victims to provide identification documents and hand over money through a bank transfer while investigations were carried out. The victims were told that the money would be returned afterwards.

But of course, it never came.

In some of the cases, the scammers convinced the victim to surrender control of their bank accounts and SingPass accounts as part of the supposed investigations

Police: No Local Government Agency Will Request Payment Through Undocumented Mediums

The police advised the public to ignore unsolicited calls where the callers ask them to hand over money or banking credentials to avoid criminal investigations.

Members of the public should never give out personal and banking details, whether it’s on a website, phone call, or messaging app.

The police added that no local government agency will request payment through an undocumented medium like a telephone call or other social messaging platforms.

They will also never demand that you surrender cash to unnamed persons, or request personal banking information like internet banking passwords.

To know more about scams, watch these anti-scam videos we’ve done in collaboration with the SPF:

Featured Image: SPF