'Government officials' scammed at least $6.7m in June

Victims of government official impersonation scams have lost at least $6.7 million since June, said the police on July 2.

Such scams involved physical collection of money or gold bars from victims, said police, adding that at least 80 cases were reported in the month alone.

Victims would receive unsolicited calls from scammers impersonating officials from banks, such as DBS and Maybank, financial institutions such as NTUC and UnionPay, or government agencies such as the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

The scammers would claim that victims had been involved in fraudulent activities via the following:

• Making banking or financial transactions
• Having outstanding premiums associated with a new or expiring insurance policy
• Having their phone numbers, personal or banking information registered in such activities

When victims denied being involved, they would be transferred to another scammer claiming to be a government official such as from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, either local or China police, or the Ministry of Law.

Scammers would then accuse victims of being involved in criminal activities - for instance, money laundering - and ask them to withdraw money, purchase gold bars, or declare valuables they owned to be handed over to unknown individuals for "investigation".

In some cases, victims were instructed to place these items in discreet locations for collection instead.

Victims would only realise that they had been scammed when the scammers became uncontactable or when they sought verification with the police.

"We would like to remind members of the public to never transfer monies, hand monies or other valuables to any unknown persons or persons whose identity you did not verify," said the police.

"Never place monies or valuables at a physical location to facilitate subsequent collection."

For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamshield.gov.sg.

Overall, victims in Singapore have lost more than $3.4 billion to scams since 2019.

The most common ruse in 2024 was e-commerce scams, with 11,665 reported cases. Victims of investment scams lost the most money - $320.7 million.