SINGAPORE: A 31-year-old man will be charged on Monday (Aug 25) over his suspected involvement as a money mule in a scam case involving the impersonation of a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) official.
The police said in a statement on Sunday (Aug 24) that the victim, who had filed a police report on Aug 12, was told by a scammer pretending to be an MAS official that he had been implicated in a money laundering investigation.
The victim was instructed by the scammer to surrender funds for investigative purposes.
The victim then handed over S$50,000 in cash to the 31-year-old Malaysian, who acted as a money mule, said the police.
Officers from the Anti-Scam Command established the man’s identity and arrested him on Aug 24 when he re-entered Singapore.
Based on preliminary investigations, the man is believed to have been involved in at least four other similar cases.
He had allegedly been tasked by unknown persons to collect cash from the scam victims, and had handed the monies over to the unknown persons.
He will be charged with the offence of assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct. If found guilty, he could be jailed up to 10 years, fined up to $500,000, or both.
The police also said that government officials will never ask members of the public to do the following over the phone: transfer money, disclose bank login details and install mobile apps from unofficial app stores.
Government officials will also never transfer a call to the police.
In June, at least $6.7 million was lost to government official impersonation scams. Overall, victims in Singapore have lost more than $3.4 billion to scams since 2019. - The Straits Times/ANN
