SINGAPORE (Bernama): Scammers impersonating immigration officers and offering fraudulent Permanent Resident (PR) application services have drained at least S$8.8 million (RM28.07 million) from victims since January, according to Singapore authorities.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a joint advisory on Friday that 148 reports involving immigration-related scams have been lodged so far.
The advisory said ICA was aware of commercial entities or consultants claiming they could improve applicants’ chances of obtaining long-term immigration facilities, including Singapore PR.
"ICA does not support or endorse such services,” it said, advising members of the public applying for immigration facilities to submit their applications directly to ICA through ICA’s website.
The advisory followed recent media reports that a 62-year-old Malaysian woman lost RM762,700 (S$238,500) to scammers while seeking assistance with her Singapore PR application.
The advisory said victims might encounter advertisements on social media platforms offering purported PR application services and claiming to help applicants obtain Singapore PR status.
After clicking on the advertisements, victims would be directed to a fake consultancy agency’s website and prompted to submit their personal particulars, including mobile phone numbers, through an online form.
"The scammers would then contact the victims and mislead them into paying fees ranging from S$200 to around S$90,000 to proceed with the PR application, under the pretext of improving their chances of success through investments in companies, purchases of academic certifications and donations.
"The victims were then instructed to make bank transfers or hand over cash to unknown individuals,” it said.
Victims would only realise they had been scammed when they approached the authorities to verify the authenticity of fake In-Principle Approval (IPA) letters bearing the ICA letterhead. -- BERNAMA
