MOM Officer Phone Scam

Received a call from “MOM” officers? Beware it might be a scam!

Police have received several reports of victims who received phone calls from scammers claiming to be officers from Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

The scammers would call the victims using a phone number similar to the MOM Contact Centre’s hotline (6438 5122) and inform them about an error in their personal particulars. They were then told to transfer money to an account to settle issues related to their stay in Singapore or work pass application.
MOM has clarified that such calls are not authentic. MOM will not call members of the public to request for any fund transfers. Members of the public are reminded to exercise vigilance and be wary of such phone calls.

If you receive such calls, you should adopt these crime prevention measures:
• Ignore such calls;
• Do not transfer any money to the caller, either via remittance agencies, banks or any other means; and
• Call the Police immediately at ‘999’ to report the case.

- https://www.facebook.com/singaporepoliceforce

Phone Kidnapping Scam Warning from SPF

Despite the frequent warning of such scam, there are still victims falling to such scams out of anxiety for family member.



Members of public are advised to be aware of kidnap scams, which have surfaced, and to adopt the following measures:

• Call ‘999’ immediately when you receive such calls;
• Remain calm and contact your loved one to confirm his or her safety; and
• Do not remit any money.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/singaporepoliceforce

Crime Advisory - "Police Bail" Phone Scam

From Singapore Police Force Fan Page:

The Police would like to remind the public to be vigilant against scams as criminals are coming up with more innovative ways to cheat unsuspecting victims. Police have received reports on the “police bail” phone scam recently.

In this scam, the victims received calls purportedly from China, with the “+86”country code. The caller would claim to be the victim’s friend and allege that he had been arrested by police while in China. The scammer would then ask the victim to transfer a sum of money to pay the bail or fines for his release. Victims who acceded to the scammer’s request would eventually discover that it was a scam after establishing contact with their friends. Thus far, victims have transferred sums ranging from $800 to $16,000 to a bank account in China.

Police would like to remind members of public to be vigilant against such scams, and to adopt the following crime prevention measures:

- Inform the Police immediately if anyone attempts to extort or ask money from you;

- Be wary of messages or calls from unknown people who want to befriend you;

- Do not remit or transfer money to people whom you do not know well enough. The criminal may spend months building rapport with you before asking for money;

- Do not give personal details about yourself or friends when interacting with unknown persons over the phone; and

- If you receive any message or call from anyone claiming he/she is in some kind of trouble overseas and need you to urgently send money over, you should report the matter to Police and not transfer the money.

If you have any information related to this crime, do not hesitate to call the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or 999 for urgent Police assistance.

China Bank SMS Scam

Presenting you the great money making opportunity...

+265 998 74 16 64:
I AM MAO CHEN FROM CHINA BANK, I HAVE AN URGENT BUSINESS DEAL FOR YOU WORTH 26 MILLION USD.PLS ITS IMPORTANT YOU CONTACT ME VIA EMAIL: maochen05@yahoo.com.hk

26 million US dollars!

Hey baby Mao Chen, why don't you call me directly since it's so urgent? Can my pet bunny do the business with you inside the toilet? We will be pleased to arrange it on the new World Toilet Day.

We laughed upon seeing this SMS, how about you?

For those who don't get the joke, please note that this is just an SMS scam.

Overseas Phone Call Scams

Have you been getting phone calls from overseas?



+200034
+67690110
+67690112
+99001

If you have picked up the call by accidental or due to your courage, do let us know how does the scam work. Did the scammer ask you to collect any prize or tell you that your relative is being kidnapped overseas?

If you don't know how to differentiate between overseas and local call, do read on.

Whenever anyone calls you, the number will display a plus "+" on the left, together with the country code (a number). For new number calling you from Singapore, you may see +65 on the left because 65 is Singapore's country code. If you receive a call from your friend without "+65", it may be due to you saving his/her number without it on your phone's address book before that.

Currently, Singapore's numbers consist of eight digits. Numbers beginning with "6" are for residential and office use, while "9" and "8" (newer) are for mobile phone. That means you will only receive calls from your local friend with either eight or 10 (with "65") digits.

Scammers can be tricky enough to use numbers starting with the digits "6" or even "65" to call you. Since residential and office number starts with the digit "6", we may fall into their tricks and think it is a local call.

Do note that it is also possible to fake phone number.

Now, back to the main topic... Whoever knows the real intention of the overseas calls, do update us!

Prize Money Phone Scam

We have received an email as of below:



This is one of the most convincing scams that I almost fell for which happened to me over a period of a month.

I first received a call from a "blocked" number 2 months ago, where a female woman who speaks pretty good chinese asked me a few survey questions about my handphone choice as well as electronic products. I was eager to get off the phone so I answered quickly and without much thought. The lady ended the call by saying that her company will be having an electronic fair the next day in Singapore and that my number will be entered for a lucky draw. I didnt give it much thought afterwards.

One month of silence.

4 weeks later I received a similar call from the same woman who spoke fluent Chinese. She asked me whether I could remember the similar call she made 4 weeks ago about the lucky draw. She identified herself as Chen Xiu Zhu. I was eager to get off the phone so I just skimmed through her questions with all my superficial answers. To which she responded calmly that my number won 3rd place for the lucky draw, which included a 15 day tour to America for four people that is worth 618, 600 HK dollars. I was very skeptical but the woman was extremely glib and persuasive. She even went to the extent by telling me that this fair can be found on local media (as they had coverage over it) and I could check the chinese news. She probably knew by then that I wasnt too good with my Chinese and tried to lead me to that unfamiliar direction. She even provided me a link to the Hong Kong based company's internet address where I could find all the information of the fair and lucky draw on it. The link is: www.xinskhk.com. The company's name is Hong Kong Hong Xin Shun electronics

She then asked me to claim the prize within the next two weeks, just by simply providing copies of my passport and passports of my family members to her. I then asked her to give me some time to check it out and she gladly did. During the conversation she also noted my apparent skepticism and spent a good 10 minutes telling me not to worry that it isnt a scam and that they will not collect a single cent from me. When I got off the phone I immediately went to check the website and true enough, the company seemed pretty legit. I then went to consult my dad to ask if he thinks its legit and we both were skeptical about it.

The very next day, the same woman called back and said that I had the chance to either take the trip or convert the trip into cash which would amount to 540,000 HK dollars after reduction of a proportion of money. She kept congratulating me and even provided me more details about the company, because at that point I asked her what the catch was. She said that the Hong Kong based electronics company was planning to come to Singapore to set up shop later in October that year and that all I had to do was to come down to the event and answer reporters which will be covered by the media. Sounds pretty legit so far, as she kept emphasizing that her company will not take a single cent from me. All i had to do was to agree and provide her my name, IC number, Date of birth and bank account number and they will transfer the money over.

These are the factors that made the entire operation seem legit:
1. She kept emphasizing that her company will not take a single cent from me
2. The website she gave me seemed legit and even contained a news result on the lucky draw of which my phone number was listed
3. I couldnt seem to find any scam reports or alerts to this particular case on the internet
4. She managed to convince me that her company was setting up shop in Singapore later in the year
5. She managed to keep me on the phone for close to an hour, explaining that she will never resort to a scam and told me all the company was doing etc etc, basically building a very strong rapport with me, even telling me that I could go to the police if I wanted to but emphasizing that her company was legit
6. The very next day she even set up an account for me under the guise of a hong kong hang loong bank or something and even gave an account number: 0008168959 and a password that all seemed pretty legit
7. She willingly talked to my dad for an hour reassuring him that its not a scam
8. She conducted herself in a very professional manner, so much to the extent where i literally placed my trust in her

What busted her:
1. So it was during the week of dumpling festival where she told me that there will be three days of holidays for her and she will call me back the week after to confirm the transfer of money to my POSB account. So far so good, she hasnt asked for any money yet
2. Two weeks passed and she finally gave me a call, telling me that another personnel from the "bank" will give me a call later to confirm the transfer of funds
3. truly enough another person called me and requested that i hand over another document before the transaction can be complete (sounded very professional)
4. As they probably played on the fact that my Chinese wasnt very good, the other person made me call Chen Xiu Zhu (that same woman) from the company to assist me in the handing over of another document (which makes the story more legit)
5. Finally, after weeks of playing it back and forth, Chen Xiu Zhu finally says that I needed to hand over 4.5% of the amount over to the "bank" holding my money as they were transfering funds across countries. The first red flag. She made the mistake of identifying the instituition that held my money to be government run.
6. The second red flag - A call made from my dad to the monetary authority of Hong Kong revealed that there was no such existing agreement in such a government instituition and advised that it was most definitely a scam
7. A call made again to Chen Xiu Zhu, who suddenly became hesitant and anxious in her speech, insisting that this isnt a scam etc etc. The final red flag came when the pre-existing telephone number suddenly became defunct when I tried calling the same number as listed on the company's website
8. A more thorough check on the internet, I managed to find a very similar case posted by "almost victims" on http://saltwetfish.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/hong-kong-price-money-phone-scam/#comments

Really angry because so much thought and planning has gone behind the many phone calls made back and forth. No matter how sweet tongued and glib these people sound, as the old saying goes, if its too good to be true, it probably is!

Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA) Impersonate Scams

Police have noted a recent spate of cases involving victims who received phone calls from scammers claiming to be officers from the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore (ICA). The scammers would call victims using a phone number similar to the ICA hotline (6391 6100). They would then inform the victims that they had not filled in their Disembarkation/Embarkation cards properly, and asked the victims to transfer funds to the scammers to legitimise their stay in Singapore. As of 2 May 2013, 49 cases have been reported, of which 22 foreign victims have fallen to the scam.

To raise public awareness to this new scam, Police have stepped up the community engagement efforts. At the foreign worker dormitories, crime prevention messages have been shared to highlight this new trend. At the inter-agency roadshows to reach out to the foreign workers, we would also include the sharing of this scam in the programme. To increase the outreach, crime advisories have been disseminated to areas like Little India, and are also prominently displayed at the remittance centres to warn potential victims. Police also partnered the Singapore Bangladesh Society to highlight this scam at its Public Awareness Campaign held on 1 May 2013 in front of Serangoon Plaza. The High Commission of India in Singapore has publicised our scam advisory by uploading it on their website. Police seek community assistance and awareness to prevent, deter and detect this new scam.

In addition, ICA had issued a public advisory to clarify that such calls are not authentic. ICA does not call up members of public for funds transfer pertaining to immigration facilities.

Members of public who received such phone scam calls should do the following:
• Call the Police immediately at the Police hotline at 1800-255 0000 or ‘999’ to report the case.
• Ignore such calls; and
• Do not transfer any money via remittance agencies, banks or any other means to the caller

Source: Singapore Police Force Facebook page

Google Event - VIP

got a call from UNKNOWN calming that his from google company and said that i got chosen to be their VIP for tml event, oh well. of cause i entertain them ! HAHAHAHA. Sorry mdm how old are you? I'M 40! single or married? Married. Oh so you have a husband. SORRY I HAVE 3 HUSBANDS! Ohhh!!cool! YEA WHAT YOU WANT? oh actually we are giving you $70Cash and $200 Shopping voucher if you attend our event t
ml at 7pm, you dont need to pay anything. OH SO GOOD AH, OKAY LA! so you coming down with your lovely husband tml right? WHICH HUSBAND YOU WAN ME TO BRING DOWN TML?! ehhhh so mdm i'll see you tml 7pm is that okay? YOU HAVEN ANSWER ME! WHICH HUSBAND YOU WAN ME TO BRING DOWN? anyone will do, how old is your husband? 45YEARS OLD! okay later my manager will call you and send you a sms. SURE!! *didnt pick up any phone calls later on, jitao spam me 10 miss call, they sibei free, so i entertain them also HAHAHAHA*

A girl received a call from someone claiming to be from Google and invited her to their "event". It seemed like the unknown person did not even know of her age...

We have no idea what trick is unknown person is up to.

Fake Policeman Scam

We have received a blog comment a couple of months ago regarding a phone scam. Sorry for not posting this up earlier because it has gone into the spam list automatically.

Fraudster Threatening Sex crime: I received a mail to call a number 9350 2840. The call got cut and received obscene message soliciting pros. I replied asking for identity and later a stupid scamster called from 85870482 stating that he is a cop and I need to meet him at jurong west police station. He said some guy having no 85958031 and complained about me because i messaged her daugher (mob9350 2840). I knew I did not msg anything wrong still he called me.
I subsequently searched this number in the internet and i found a link that this guy/guys has/have been threatening many people link:http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/82692175
These miscreants should be punished. Please suggest a way to post this link to police anonymously to help fellow singaporeans to face these kind of cheap crooks

Do note that the mobile numbers of the tricksters may change. We hope you will just remember that there is this kind of trick and not fall for it in future.

Phone Scams Regarding Computer Being Hacked

The Singapore Police Force has warned the public not to fall prey to phone scams involving internet security. 32 cases have been reported since the beginning of this year.

On June 14, a woman had received a phone call from someone who claimed to be an employee of a well-known software company. The scammer told her that some Malaysians were trying to hack into her computer, followed by selling her a security licence in order to protect her computer.

After she handed over her credit card details, she realised S$1,300 was stolen from her account.

"I asked them to let me talk to my husband, but they said no, I had to make a decision that time, or else my computer would be blacklisted... I gave my credit card number and one-time password. Suddenly the screen went blank and some amount was charged to my account, and it was in euros," she said.

The public is advised not to divulge their credit card details to unknown person. Software company will not have your contact details. Therefore, in emergency situation, you will receive call from your Internet Service Provider (ISP), which can be Starhub, SingNet or M1. However, none of the companies would provide such security service.

Phone Line Guarantor Scam

One Singaporean girl has trusted her friend and become the guarantor to sign up a SingTel phone line. S, now owing SingTel $3000+, is facing charges from SingTel over the $3050 bill used by her friend J.

Dear friends. I will be going to court in 3 days because of a mistake by a person whom I thought was my most trusted friend, J. She asked me to be her guarantor 3 years ago with Singtel in order for her to sign a plan. I only agreed because i trusted her and she promised to pay her bills. All was rainbows and butterflies until she stopped paying for her phone bills that accumulated to $3000+. I don't know what or how she managed to choke up that amount! Singtel had to turn to me because I was the guarantor (duh). I tried to contact her countless times the past 3 years, but she seemed to disappear every time I or my friends tried to contact her. She cut all ties with me and didn't return any of my calls. I had no means to pay that huge amount of money as my family is not well to do. In addition, I am still studying full-time and I have to pay my own bills as well as my family's household expenses. Moreover, I did not use that line. All students will understand how hard it is to study and work and at the same time, support the family.

I was foolish and am embarrassed to say I befriended and trusted this girl too easily.

Today, singtel finally appeared at my doorstep, warning me of the dire consequences which I will face in 3 days if I do not pay up the $3050. I'm really at my wits end, thus I'm turning to social media for help.

I have learnt my lesson not to trust people too easily, especially with money, even if they are my best friends. I have made that mistake once and I will never make it again.

Please help me keep a look out for J and if you do see her, please ask her to contact me or Singtel to clear the debt. I will be forever grateful for your kindness and understanding.

This is a lesson for everyone to not trust your friend too easily.

Updates (18 June 2012):

Photo of scammer and URL are removed as requested by commenter who stated that the scammer had already re-appeared from the lowest level of hell to contact the victim.

Updates (20 June 2012):

Regarding the number of Anonymous posters here, it would of course be much appreciated if they were to use some aliases.

All new comments will take some time to appear because they will be moderated - just to avoid bots from spamming the blog, which happens frequently. We appreciate all the commenters so far for the language used.

Scams Singapore is not connected to any of them.

Updates (21 June 2012):
We have received an email from J to update us - she will be paying the amount owed by installment. All names are removed since the matter seems to be resolved, unless S wants to further pursue it.

Call From Number +65333458 Scam

We have just received a call from the number +65333458.

"+65" is the country code for Singapore, which means if someone uses a phone line to call you in Singapore, "+65" will be displayed at the front.

The person who called had an Indian accent, who spoke very fast and was recommending us to get a free package or gift from "Bank of China".

As he continued to shoot nonsense, we took a look at the phone number and realised it was very weird. If we were to break down the number into country code and phone number, "+65" and "333458", the phone number was different from the normal 8-digit Singapore number - it was just 6 digits.

We knew something was wrong and regretted even picking up the call. As we said "Sorry, I'm not interested", the fellow ignored us and continued to recommend his product until slamming his phone.

Lesson learnt for the day is that phone number that appears on the caller ID can be faked like email - we have heard about it before but the "+65" in front is really tricky. We hope nobody is tempted by whatever free package or gift.

We are not sure what kind of scam they are trying their luck on, however, companies that fake number are obviously up to no good.

Sim Lim Square Scams in Singapore

Following the earlier complaint by our reader regarding the Sim Lim Square scam on purchasing of Samsung Galaxy Tab, there is a complaint lodged to Stomp regarding the exact same shop. However, the complaint is regarding Nokia phone this time.

From Stomp:

STOMPer einnor warns others against this shop in Sim Lim that charged her friend for 'software installation' without her friend's knowledge. When confronted, the shop owner smugly asked the friend to get a lawyer to sue him.

The STOMPer elaborates:

"Recently, my classmate from China bought 2 Nokia 302 phones from a shop in Sim Lim for 560 SGD.

"The shop told my friend that the phones require a software to work when my friend brings them back to China.

"The owner didn't tell my friend how much the 'software installation' was, so my friend thought that it was free as she is using the phones in China, and so she agreed to the installation.

"In the end, the bill came up to $1410.

"This is obviously a cheating case. And when my friend asked for a refund, the owner said no and proudly asked my friend to find a lawyer and sue him.

"STOMPers, be careful of this shop."

Following this news broadcast by Stomp, Facebook user Doris Winata shared it: "They charged my sis $850 for itouch which cost $450. @_@".

"Yea.. They return 100$ and gave a screen protector. My sis gullible ma"

She cannot confirm that it is the same shop but the shop is definitely in Sim Lim Square.

Victims who have been cheated by any shop should report to the police and CASE so that the scammers will not be able to victimize more people. It is time to uphold the reputation of Sim Lim Square, which is one of the IT heavens in Singapore.

Free Zoo Tickets Scam - Phone Scam

Recently, there are cases of people being rang up regarding free Singapore Zoological Gardens tickets. The caller has claimed that the owner of the phone number has won free tickets to the Singapore Zoo but they have to reveal their identification (IC) numbers and other details in order to get the tickets. Since the scammer may have taken the phone number from the phone directory, the scammer may also know victim's name, which make the scam look more convincing.

The Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which runs the Singapore Zoo has announced that the free tickets distribution is a hoax.

This could be either a prank to make the victims to go down all the way to the Zoo to collect their "free" tickets or simply a scam to steal their IC numbers.

We are not sure what can the scammer do with the name, IC and phone numbers of the victims. It may be useful in cracking SingPass since the login requires the user's IC number, together with a password, and the user may have used his/her phone number as the password. Similar to some Internet Banking, IC number is the login. The scammer may also collect the IC number before lying low temporary and strike the victim off-guarded - there are new scam methods emerging everyday and do expect the unexpected.

If this scam is purely a prank, the scammer has probably done the Singapore Zoo a big favour for the free marketing. McDonald's place advertisements every now and then to create an impression on the public and the Singapore Zoo will definitely need it as well and they get it for free this time. Victims may also lead their family members down to collect the "free" tickets and they will eventually buy the tickets since they are already there. Many families in Singapore are busy with work and will rarely find time to get together. We hereby represent Singapore Zoo and the affected victims to thank the scammer.

Nevertheless, we would like to urge the public not to be easily taken in by such phone scam. Do not trust a caller completely. If you have won a prize from a big company, they will mail you a letter instead. And also, a decent company does not even need you to verify yourself since it is not a guess-and-win phone game. Please feel odd when the caller starts asking you for sensitive information. Big companies will also not use private number to call you.

We would encourage the public not to take up any random street survey, which the surveyor may lead you to provide your details.

Phone Kidnapping Scam

Someone has requested The Online Citizen to pass on this scam alert to the public. We are not able to confirm the news.

From TheOnlineCitizen:

A citizen allowed us to share this information with the public

< My mum got a call 9:30 this morn fr no 0092357658. A man claimed he had jus kidnapped her daughter(me). Then follows a lady crying on the phone in mandarin "妈妈 妈妈 快救我 快救我 出事了 出事了＂the man then continue to say he had just killed someone and is on the run. He needs 20k to flee. He ask for my mum's location n if she's alone in the office. Later when he heard voices of her colleagues, he got angry and said "you lied that you r alone, now I am going to kill ur daughter. Come collect her body in 2 mins" >

The mum who received the call on last friday made a report on the night itself to the Singapore police. Do be advised on such scams and warn elderly parents who would need to be alert to such occurrences. Callers are from overseas and will get victims to do money transfer via western union which makes it difficult for police to track.

This piece of news arrives during this period of time when the police is still investigating the attempted kidnap reports but there is definitely no link between them.

It has been a known fact that such phone kidnapping scam has long existed. Even the recently ended drama show on channel 8 "Rescue 995" starred by Yvvone Lim, Fang Zhan Fa, Tay Ping Hui and Ou Xuan has a scene that Yvvone Lim's brother (in the show) tried to scam their grandma together with his friends.

This is a kind of confidence trick. The scammer would claim that his team has kidnapped the victim's child or grandchild. As the victim loses her calm, the "kidnapper" would make her "son" or "grandson" to cry for help. It is not easy to verify the voice over phone, especially when the source of screaming is a distance away from the scammer's phone. Moreover, when the victim is in a shock, there is a higher tendency that she would fall for the hoax.

People who are sharp enough would have tried to call the "hostage" to check. However, there are cases that the victims' relatives cannot be reached, they take in the scammers' words and hand over the "ransom".

It seems that the scammers are doing random calling to pick up their victims. We have heard from a targeted person staying in HDB flat that after she slammed the phone years back, the scammer did not bother to call her back. Her neighbour was, in fact, targeted within the same day as well.

Since the use of mobile phone is common, it is definitely easy for anyone to call her relative to check the status to confirm that the caller is a scammer. Everyone should remind the elderly at home about such kidnap hoax so that they will not fall for the trick.

New ideas would emerge everyday and the scammer may put in more "dressing" to the scam. Everyone should always stay vigilant.

Handphone Scam - Latest Scam Tactics in Taiwan

The following is being circulated through emails. The current technology is highly possible to allow this to happen.

Though this scam is rumored to be happening in Taiwan, it's very possible that the same tactic can be applied at anywhere.

Do read on.




Latest scam tactics in Taiwan... it will likely to nearer to you soon!

So please be aware.

DO NOT LEND YOUR HANDPHONE TO STRANGERS

These con artists who will approach you are likely to be a female or an elderly person. They will tell you that they just got rob and need to call the police. Right in front of you, they will call 110, 911 or 119 (the
emergency tel for the local police). They will speak loudly for you to hear that they are reporting a case but halfway through, they will pretend that the reception is poor and walk about 5meters away from you with their
back towards you.

All they need is 1min and a tiny gadget that acts as a USB (available for sale in China) to copy your entire phone book contacts.

Then over the next few hours, they will SMS to all your contacts, pretending to be you (with your tel no appearing in your contact's phone).

The SMS will say that you are now overseas, in trouble with the police, you cannot use your phone and that is why you are sending out SMS. You need help to transfer money to an account. Usually the amount they ask is within
affordable range. Your phone will not be contactable for the few hours that they are busy sending out SMS. So your family and friends will believe you are in trouble.

The case below happened to a Taiwanese and he reported to the local police a few days later when his friends finally manage to contact him and he learned that he was being duped. The police told him that this is an old
trick that they use to target tourists and now they are moving to the locals.

So my friends, please do not lend your phone to ANYONE you do not know. If they really want help, send them to the nearest police station!