2 Malaysians arrested on 8 Nov for suspected links to government impersonation scams in Singapore
Two Malaysians have been arrested for their suspected involvement in cases of Government Official Impersonation Scam (GOIS).
In one of the scam cases, a victim was reportedly tricked into buying S$412,000 worth of gold.
Woman scammed into buying gold worth S$412K
According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), the victim in question was first contacted by an unknown individual who claimed to be from a bank.
The victim was then told that a credit card had been applied for under her name.
After denying the claim, the victim was transferred to representatives from the ‘Ministry of Law’ (MinLaw) and the ‘Monetary Authority of Singapore’ (MAS) and was told that she was implicated in a money laundering case.
Source: SPF
To appear more credible, the purported representatives from ‘MinLaw’ and ‘MAS’ showed the victim fake staff passes and supporting documents.
Source: SPF
They subsequently instructed the victim to transfer S$1 million from her bank account to her credit card, and to use the proceeds to purchase more than S$412,000 worth of gold at Mustafa Centre.
Later that day, the victim was told to hand the gold over to an unknown individual.
She lodged a police report after realising that something was amiss.
Both scammers arrested on same day
SPF officers eventually identified the unknown individual — who received the gold — as a 38-year-old man.
The Malaysian suspect was arrested when he re-entered Singapore last Saturday (8 Nov).
Another 22-year-old man suspected of being involved in similar cases was arrested on the same day.
Investigations by the SPF revealed that both men had been allegedly tasked by unknown persons to collect cash and valuables from other scam victims.
They would then hand over the valuables to individuals believed to be part of a transnational scam syndicate.
Both Malaysians face up to 10 years’ jail each
Both Malaysian nationals were to be charged on Monday (10 Nov) for assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct.
If found guilty, they could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to S$500,000, or both.
According to SPF, there has been an increasing trend of Malaysian nationals travelling to Singapore to assist scam syndicates in collecting valuables from victims.
Also read:Ex-UOB employee discloses customers’ details to scammers posing as police from China
Ex-UOB employee discloses customers’ details to scammers posing as police from China
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Featured image adapted from SPF and MustShareNews.
