SINGAPORE: The police have warned members of the public to be vigilant against theft and e-commerce scams, which they said tend to increase in the last quarter of the year.
In a news release on Friday (Nov 24), the police said they had observed a rise in such cases during the year-end period, “which may involve sellers from overseas”.
Last year, there were 222 cases of theft in the last quarter, the second-highest in a three-month period for the year. From October to December, there were also 571 cases of e-commerce scams, the highest for the year.
According to the police a large majority of e-commerce scams take place on online classified platforms like Carousell – out of 900 cases this year, more than 800 people have fallen prey to scams on Carousell.
ENHANCED POLICE PRESENCE
As part of crime prevention initiatives, there will be an enhanced police presence in shopping malls during the year-end period.
On Friday, Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health Amrin Amin launched the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and the Singapore Police Force’s annual year-end crime prevention campaign.
It will run for four months from Nov 24 to Mar 19 next year and will focus on combating four types of scam: Internet love scams, impersonation scams, e-commerce scams and credit-for-sex scams.
“As crimes are quickly shifting online, NCPC is currently embarking on an extensive social media campaign to educate the public on scams,” said NCPC’s chairman Tan Kian Hoon. “We hope that the public can support this campaign and help share the anti-scam messages with their loved ones and friends.”
“Who knows, you just might be able to help prevent someone from becoming a victim.”
CROSS-BORDER EFFORT TO CLAMP DOWN ON SCAM SYNDICATES
In the first half of the year, the police said they had received at least 300 reports of credit-for-sex scams involving a total amount of at least S$880,000.
In such scams, syndicate members in China impersonated attractive women residing in Singapore and used social media platforms such as Wechat, LINE and Skype to “befriend unsuspecting male victims in Singapore”, the police said.
They would offer sexual services but told their victims to purchase Alipay credits or iTunes gift cards and send these to them as deposits.
“In all cases, the victims did not get to meet the ‘women’,” said the police.
Since June this year, officers from the police’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China have conducted a joint investigation into a credit-for-sex scam syndicate based in China, said the police.
In an operation in July, the Chinese police conducted simultaneous raids across four provinces in China and arrested 49 members of a syndicate responsible for these scams, said the Singapore police.
The CAD also arrested six Singaporeans for their possible involvement in the scams.
Thanking the Chinese police for their involvement, Mr David Chew, director of the CAD, stressed that criminal groups “are hiding behind the Internet to target victims across borders”.
“This successful operation is the culmination of a joint collaboration between the police forces of China and Singapore and is testament of the strong ties with our Chinese counterparts.”
