SINGAPORE: For the first time in eight years, the number of scam cases in Singapore fell from more than 50,000 cases in 2024 to 37,308 cases in 2025.
The amount lost to scammers also dipped from the record high of $1.1 billion in 2024 to $913.1 million in 2025, the police said on Feb 25 as they released their annual scam statistics.
But a concerning trend emerged in 2025, with victims convinced to buy gold bars and hand them over to scammers, as these are harder for the authorities to track.
The police said that there were at least 131 cases in 2025 involving victims handing over gold bars to scammers. Such cases were seen in government official impersonation scams, insurance services scams and investment scams.
Scammers would convince victims to buy gold bars and hand them over for “investigation or investment purposes”.
The police added that scammers seem to be shifting to gold as a payment method to avoid tightened anti-scam measures such as enhanced banking verification procedures and improved detection of mule accounts.
Pokemon trading cards
E-commerce scams were the most common scam type in 2025, with 6,703 cases reported and $16.7 million lost. The figures were down from the 11,665 cases and $17.5 million lost in 2024.
The police said Pokemon trading cards made up 13.6 per cent of all e-commerce scam cases and were the most common item involved in such scams.
The total amount lost to e-commerce scams involving Pokemon trading cards was at least $1.6 million.
More than half of Pokemon card scam victims were aged between 30 and 49 years old, while 40.8 per cent of victims were aged 20 to 29 years old.
The police said scammers exploited the growing demand for new and exclusive releases of Pokemon trading cards and rare cards with high resale value.
Government impersonation scams surge
Despite the overall drop in scam cases, the number of government official impersonation scam cases more than doubled from 1,504 cases in 2024 to 3,363 in 2025. It was the fifth most common scam type in 2025.
The amount lost to such scams also rose significantly by around 60 per cent from $151.3 million in 2024 to $242.9 million in 2025.
Nine out of 10 such cases involved victims falling for scammers impersonating local government officials, bank staff or financial institution representatives through calls, the police said.
These include scammers impersonating officers from the Singapore Police Force, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, Monetary Authority of Singapore and China government officials.
Scammers would first convince victims that there were suspicious transactions on their credit cards or insurance policies. The calls would then be transferred to fake government officials accusing victims of money laundering.
The victims would be told to transfer money to unknown accounts and hand over cash purportedly for investigation purposes.
Job scams were the third most common scam type in 2025, with more than 5,500 cases reported and $123.5 million lost.
The police said a notable job scam variant involved victims being persuaded to start online businesses.
They would be asked to register accounts on scam sites before using their own money to purchase items to fulfil orders for these businesses.
Initially, commissions would be paid, but orders would soon require increasingly larger sums. Victims would be told that additional payments were needed before they could withdraw their commissions.
The police said: “This variant was highly convincing, as victims saw their online balances grow, prompting them to invest more in hopes of higher returns.”
New scam type
Insurance services scams, which were not among the top 10 scams in 2024, took the eighth spot in 2025.
There were 1,003 insurance services scam cases in 2025, with $25.2 million lost.
Scammers impersonating officers from insurance companies such as UnionPay or NTUC would convince victims that they had existing insurance packages. To cancel these packages, scammers would ask victims for personal details and to transfer money for the cancellation to be verified.
Victims would be promised a refund after their insurance package was cancelled, and would realise they had been duped only after making multiple transfers without receiving the refunds.
Overall, around eight in 10 scam cases in 2025 saw victims voluntarily transferring money to scammers, instead of scammers directly controlling their bank accounts.
The police said cryptocurrency losses continued to form a considerable percentage of scam losses in 2025, taking up 20 per cent of overall losses, with more than $182 million lost.
They said: “It is likely that scammers leverage cryptocurrency because of its irreversible transactions and limited traceability, making asset recovery very challenging for the authorities.”
Police figures also showed that more than 60 per cent of scam victims in 2025 were below 50 years old. They mostly fell for e-commerce scams, while those aged between 50 and 64 commonly fell for phishing scams.
The elderly, aged 65 and above, made up almost 15 per cent of scam victims in 2025, almost double the 8.4 per cent in 2024. This group mostly fell for investment and government official impersonation scams.
The average amount they lost was $37,053, the highest across all age groups, the police said. - The Straits Times/ANN
