SINGAPORE: A two-month transnational scam crackdown involving law enforcement agencies from 10 territories led to the arrest of 3,018 people, with more than 130 of them nabbed in Singapore, said the police on Wednesday (May 20).
Operation FRONTIER+ III, which involved more than 3,200 officers across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Brunei, the Maldives and Canada, targeted a wide range of scams, including e-commerce scams, job scams, investment scams and impersonation scams.
A total of 7,553 individuals were investigated during the operation from March 10 to May 7, with about US$752 million (S$963 million) lost to the scams, said the police. Those arrested were aged between 13 and 85.
Nearly 102,000 bank accounts linked to the scams were frozen and more than US$161 million in illicit funds were seized.
During the operation, the Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Scam Centre investigated more than 1,000 individuals linked to scam cases involving more than $69.3 million in losses. More than 130 people were arrested in Singapore, a total of 2,315 bank accounts were frozen and $34.9 million was seized.
Singapore CEO duped by impersonation scam
In one of the scams, the chief executive officer of a Singapore-based company received a WhatsApp call from a scammer posing as the chairman of the firm’s headquarters, and was instructed to oversee an “acquisition project” involving the transfer of US$36.3 million of company funds into two local OCBC accounts.
The ruse was uncovered only after the CEO checked with the company’s actual chairman on the purported acquisition.
After a report was made, the police intervened and seized US$9.7 million from the local accounts. However, about US$26.5 million had already been wired to bank accounts in Hong Kong.
The Singapore police sought help from their counterparts in Hong Kong, which led to the seizure of more than US$11.1 million from Hong Kong bank accounts and associated cryptocurrency wallets.
“Investigations subsequently led to the arrest of two Singaporeans, who facilitated the opening of a corporate bank account to receive the illicit funds,” said the police, adding that investigations are ongoing.
In another scam, a staff member of a Singapore-based commodity trading firm received an e-mail that appeared to be from one of its suppliers requesting the transfer of US$6.6 million to a bank account in Oman.
The staff member discovered the fraud a day later after its actual supplier notified the firm that it had not changed its bank account. A police report was then made.
In this case, the domain name of the spoof e-mail address was subtly altered, making it difficult to differentiate from the e-mail address of the legitimate supplier.
The Singapore police worked with the authorities in Dubai to facilitate communication with the Omani authorities, leading to the recovery of the funds.
Collaboration with Malaysian authorities
The Singapore police also worked with the Malaysian authorities to dismantle a transnational scam syndicate, which was the source of a series of scam-linked bank accounts. This led to the arrest of three Malaysians in Johor Bahru.
A total of 83 mobile phones, 45 bank tokens and a computer containing the syndicate’s operating software were seized.
Following the raid, the Singapore police arrested 18 individuals who had knowingly opened or surrendered bank accounts, or relinquished their Singpass credentials for monetary gain.
Separately, another three Malaysians were arrested for their suspected involvement in government official impersonation scams targeting victims in Singapore in a joint operation between law enforcement officers from both sides of the border.
A total of 22 Singapore-based victims lost more than $877,000 to these scams.
The three offenders were nabbed at a suspected scam operations centre in Kuala Lumpur, with 17 mobile phones, a computer, a router and two walkie-talkies also seized. The devices yielded fake court orders, handwritten notes and photographs that linked the suspects to the fraud.
Peggy Pao, the director of the Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department, said: “Our ability to curb cross-border scams hinges on the depth of the relationships we build with the FRONTIER+ network. When agencies share real-time alerts, pool analytical resources and conduct synchronised raids, this accelerates the identification of illicit fund flows and the dismantling of scam operations.
“Scammers quickly learn that there is no jurisdiction where they can operate unchecked. Looking ahead, we will continue to build on our FRONTIER+ partnerships, so that Singapore and the wider region remain resilient against the ever-evolving tactics of scam syndicates.”
The FRONTIER+ cross-border anti-scam collaboration platform is made up of anti-scam agency representatives from 14 territories – Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, the Maldives, Thailand, Australia, Macau, Canada, Indonesia, Brunei, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
It enables law enforcement agencies to work together in dismantling scam syndicates and their operations. - The Straits Times/ANN
