SINGAPORE — The Republic’s general crime rate fell last year, but online Romeos continued to net windfalls by duping people, with the number of cases rising 65 per cent to 636, involving a total of S$24 million.
And a new scam that only emerged last year — scammers pretending to be Chinese officials demanding payment — saw close to 500 people falling prey to them, netting the scammers S$23 million.
These details were shared on Friday (Feb 10) at the police’s annual crime brief for last year.
Overall crime in the Republic decreased by 2.6 per cent, from 33,839 cases in 2015 to 32,964 last year.
But while commercial crimes dipped 0.6 per cent last year, online love scams continued to proliferate. The sum swindled also doubled from that of the previous year.
Speaking during the media briefing on Friday, Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) director David Chew said the large sums of money involved were a concern. He also pointed out that the scams also often involve perpetrators who are overseas, and said busting such scams would require cooperation with the department’s foreign counterparts.
The Chinese officials impersonation scam was a new development last year, with no such case reported in 2015. Such scams see the perpetrator pose as a Chinese official who call victims claiming that they are wanted by the authorities for illegal activities. The victims were asked to remit money to “clear their name”.
The police said the number of cases spiked between March and July, but has been tapering off. Nonetheless, the large amounts cheated also made it a cause for concern.
As such, the police will be “upping our game” in the fight against online crime, said Mr Chew, such as by using computer forensics to investigate the crimes. “We are also gearing up on training up our investigators (in the land division), as well as in the CAD to look at the various typologies of crime,” he said.
Commenting on online love scams, Mr Chew said one reason scammers have been successful is because “(scams like these) bank on human trust”. While the police educate the public about such scams, the public must be vigilant when interacting with strangers online.
Elsewhere, e-commerce cheating cases, as well as credit-for-sex cases saw decreases of 5.9 per cent and 33.8 per cent, respectively. The sharp drop in the latter category was attributed by the police to good international cooperation with overseas law agencies, as well as increased engagement efforts with convenience stores to train counter staff to spot victims of scams.
Two major operations busted a criminal syndicate in China last year, where the Chinese police detained at least 140 suspects in connection with these scams, the police noted.
Separately, the police noted that three crime types — violent/serious property crimes, housebreaking and related crimes, as well as theft and related crimes — had fallen to 30-year lows, with decreases of 17.1 per cent, 16.2 per cent, and 9.5 per cent, respectively.
Unlicensed money lending harassment also fell to a 10-year low at 3,375 cases last year, compared with 18,000 such cases in 2009.
Deputy Commissioner of the Police (Investigations and Intelligence) Tan Chye Hee said that the dip in these crime types showed “a very encouraging set of public safety outcomes”.
Nonetheless, the police “will press on with our multi-pronged approach of tough enforcement action, community partnerships, public education and leveraging technology in our continuous fight against crime”, he added.
