News

There’s a Scam Whereby People Pretend To Be High Court Personnel & Call Others

2018-09-05 , 1:52 pm

What if one day, you receive a phone call and it’s from the High Court. And it’s not a call to inform you that a rich old man has left his million-dollar fortunes to you.

Instead, you might have gotten into trouble.

Now, before you go ape-shit crazy and start asking complete strangers on the streets, how did they know?!

Don’t worry. People might not know that you’ve been stealing gummy bears from 7-Eleven since you were 11.

It could just be a scam.

Because scams are everywhere. So many, we even did a few videos in collaboration with the Singapore Police Force to spread anti-scam messages:

(Since you’re here, subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more informative videos lah)

Scammers Are Now Posing As High Court Personnel

On 3 Sep, STOMP reported that one of their members, Lynda, received a call from the “Singapore High Court”.

When she answered, she heard an automated voice message: This is the Singapore High Court and that she has received a “summons”.

Then, the message is reiterated in Mandarin.

After that, a man spoke in Mandarin on the phone, “Hello, this is the Singapore High Court, how are you?”

When the woman asked the man to speak in English, he was not able to do so except to ask if she was able to communicate in Chinese.

He hung up after the woman asked where he was calling from multiple times.

It Turns Out To Be Just A Scam

Unfortunately for the scammer, the woman he called happened to be working in a law firm.

“I already suspected that it was a scam when I first answered because I don’t think the ‘High Court’ would communicate in Mandarin.

“And I work in a law firm so I roughly know how things work.”

An advisory from the Supreme Court of Singapore said that they would never contact members of the public via phone calls.

Instead, requests for you to go to court will be either made through letters mailed to you, or through emails.

They remind the public that, should they receive such calls, to ignore such calls.

Members of the public are also reminded not to provide any personal information to the caller, including your name, identification number, passport, bank account or credit card details.

And most importantly, do not transfer any money either through remittance agencies, banks or otherwise.

People who have information about such incidents are urged to call the Police hotline: 1800-255-0000.

People Were Successfully Duped In This Scam

I know what you’re thinking right now. Who would believe the scammers, especially if you have a clear conscience?

Trust me, when a scammer calls and he’s believable enough, you’ll do anything they say to keep from further trouble.

Back on 28 Jun this year, three men were arrested for impersonating local High Court officials.

A 31-year-old man was made to believe that he was in trouble for “transnational money laundering offences in China”.

He was told to give $5,000 to a police inspector at Kallang Wave mall for “investigations”.

Finding the situation weird, he lodged a police report and the “police inspector” was subsequently arrested.

The 20-year-old Malaysian man was found with $47,200. The money was believed to have been from the same scam.

In an unrelated case, a 53-year-old man was scammed out of $50,000. Investigations subsequently led the police two Taiwanese men aged 22 and 27 along Geylang Road.

They were suspected to have received criminal proceeds from the scam.

One of Us Received this Call Before

About one or two weeks ago, one of my colleagues received a similar call. He apparently gong gong pressed for English, thinking that his ERP fines have finally made it to the High Court.

But the call dropped off, and when he Googled the number, he read on Reddit that it’s a scam. He smiled and immediately paid off his ERP fine.

So share this with your family and friends, especially the older ones. After all, the messages and calls are typically made in Mandarin, and our older Singaporeans are at higher risk of getting duped.

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